The Scout
by tychusfindlay
Summary: The year is 2035 and America has declared war on China after a devastating Chinese cyber attack on American companies. Army Specialist Jon Browning is a cavalry scout and is conducting a mission in Western China when he begins to feel the presence of a creature the world has never seen before. Perhaps it's an enemy? Chapter 9 is up and grammar and spelling are looking top notch!
1. Chapter 1

**Western China... 2035.**

"Bravo 2 you have all the necessary info and the mission is now a go. You know your job, stay safe out there soldiers..."

**Soldier BIO**

Army enlistee Jon Browning

MOS (Military Occupation Specialty) 19D = Cavalry Scout. The Cavalry Scouts are the U.S. Army's premier front-line reconnaissance soldiers. These soldiers are trained specifically to carry out either mounted or dismounted reconnaissance operations in order to gather intel including: enemy troop formations, the general disposition of the enemy, the strength of the enemy troops, etc. Cavalry Scouts often engage the enemy with FAVs (fast attack vehicles) and anti armor weaponry. As the front-line scouts of the U.S. Army, cavalry scouts also are trained in being able to coordinate with nearby friendly artillery placements so that they can call for indirect fire support if need be.

Age = 30 years

Pay grade = E4 (rank of Specialist)

Role within fireteam = Squad designated marksman. Browning's role is to lay down accurate fire at high volumes down ranges of up to 500 meters. He effectively extends the reach of his own cavalry scout squad with his specially-made, accurized battle rifle, the deadly MK1 Garand.

Primary weapon = MK1 Garand. The MK1 Garand is based off of the WWII era M1 Garand which was known for being an extremely effective semi automatic battle rifle that utilized an extremely powerful, accurate, and large bullet, the infamous .30-06 cartridge. The MK1 Garand incorporates many changes including the use of electromagnetic rails along with caseless .30-06C cartridges which allow for the big round to reach speeds of up to 1,625 meters per second. The MK1 Garand is fed through a detachable magazine unlike its predecessor and can carry box magazines of capacities ranging from 20-40 rounds. The MK1 Garand also has a built in suppressor and comes with a military grade telescopic sight complete with night, thermal, and infrared visions built in.

Armor system = The SPCS. The Soldier Plate Carrier System is a heavy class IV armor designed to maximize durability during dismounted operations at the cost of a slightly burdened soldier. The armor incorporates an intricate design of corrugated titanium alloy plates with layers of microkevlar in between. The class IV armor completely protects the soldier from nearly all small arms fire short of an anti materiel rifle and is used only by the U.S., German, and U.K. militaries.

Exoskeleton = The LWS-L. The Land Warrior System model "light" was designed as an exosuit that enhances the speed and stamina of a soldier moreso than the sheer strength and durability of the soldier. The LWS-L incorporates a complex exoskeleton design that multiplies the stamina and to a slighter extent the speed of the soldier. The Exoskeleton is 100% EMP hardened and is impossible to hack into via anything other than opening the suit up manually.

**Sorry guys. This is just a teaser for what's to come. An epic and very accurate story about a cavalry scout's mission in 2035 during the Sino-American war. However, along the way, the soldier finds out that he is being hunted by a creature never before seen in the world, Renamon.**

**BE WARNED. I indeed have a mastery over the English language so grammar is going to be top notch (which is good for you guys) but on top of that there may also at times be some sophisticated language that you may have to look up. I hope to make a proffessional fanfiction that everyone can enjoy, both younger audiences as well as older and more educated audiences. I'm not a very prolific author unfortunately so although I'm going to update as fast as possible I cannot guarantee you a chapter ever week (which is my goal. At the very least, I want to publish one chaper each and every week).**

**ALSO, if anyone reading this happens to be in the military, please correct me if I'm wrong on any of the realistic information (like the MOSs and such) and god bless you for the hard work you've done for this country.**

**Be prepared for an incredible journey guys, more is to come very soon...**


	2. Chapter 2

**Western China 2035...**

"Roger that command, we'll gather intel at the requested AO and send it back ASAP."

Sergeant First Class Bradley looked up after having finished talking with the division commander. He looked ahead at what was his platoon. It was unusual for a person of his rank and pay grade to be leading a platoon but there was no commissioned officer available so he was called upon to lead the men. To his side was Specialist Jon Browning whom he respected very well.

Browning looked at him before asking, "So what's the plan sir?"

The NCO (non-commissioned officer) looked at him before addressing him. If you were to study the older man's face you would have noticed the sheer amount of wrinkles that shined with sweat while showcasing just how long he had been serving his country dutifully

"Same old thing. We've got a recon mission in an AO (area of operation) approximately 25 miles up ahead from here. It looks like the remaining PLA (Chinese army) retreated and dug themselves in after the battle we fought with them three days ago. Those bastards are resilient, I'll give them that."

Jon shrugged, "we'll flush them out and finish 'em off once and for all. It just takes a little time."

Bradley looked at him and nodded his head in approval.

"Well, there aren't many of them left, and I'm not going to send and waste a whole platoon or even a squad for this small job. It's going to be just you and your fire team carrying out this mission alright Browning? I want you guys to map out the area and then call up the redlegs when you've got all the coordinates down. Eliminate the remaining enemy forces. We don't need nor want any prisoners so don't be afraid to call the artillery often."

"Sir yes sir."

"Good, you're dismissed soldier."

With a salute the specialist was on his way. The mission was a go and he and his team were going to head out to the AO by dawn the next day. With that said, he had to warn his buddies to ready up and be prepared to leave by 5 AM. He strolled over to the tents where he knew his teammates would be. _They're probably playing some cards to pass the time_ he thought to himself.

He entered the tent only to find exactly what he had expected.

To the left was the squad automatic rifleman, Corporal Steven "Bravo" Hart. Steve was sitting by his M41 SAW, a huge LMG with box magazines that typically carried 100 rounds at least. The rounds carried in the huge mags were 7.62x51mm NATO rounds, a perfect balance between sheer power, lower recoil, and high accuracy. He dealt the cards to the other two guys next to him.

To Jon's right was the squad grenadier, private first class Charles "poker-face" Henry. Ironically, he was terrible at keeping a poker face and the fact that he was smiling only punctuated that truth.

Straight ahead of Jon was Sergeant George "Buddy" Menert. He was the nicest guy of them all, hence his nickname. He was also technically the leader of the squad but since Jon was a little more coordinated they all decided that Jon should lead the squad. That was despite the fact that he was of the specialist rank and was the squad's DM (designated marksman).

Clapping his hands together, Jon got their attention before debriefing them.

"Alright guys, I just spoke with Bradley and it looks like we've got a job to do tomorrow. We'll be heading out early at 5 in the morning in order to clean up the remaining PLA from the fight three days ago. We've cut them off from their supply chain so they should be low on ammo, food, water, and sleep. There are hardly any left so Bradley doesn't want to waste a whole platoon or even a squad, so he's sending us in alone. That being said, we've got artillery support like always and he's allowing us to call for as much fire as we deem necessary. Load your guns, make sure they're clean, and have your vests dusted off boys. We're heading back to the battlefield."

They all nodded and went their own ways.

Jon was a little tired, it was 8 PM and the night had already dominated the sky as the lustrous moon hung above and shone at everything below. Heading out to the back of his tent and behind a nearby tree Jon unzipped his pants in order to take a piss. He sighed and looked up to the sky and then into the foreboding forest ahead of him. He had never been to China before and despite being at war he couldn't help but admire the nature around him. The trees were a deep green and there were some plants that he recognized while others were exotic species he had never before seen back in the states.

Just as he finished up and began zipping his pants up Jon noticed a yellow glimmer in the corner of his eyes. He tried to focus in on the yellow object or animal but was unable to as it was so fast that the second he began to focus in it was gone, lost forever in the deep foreboding forest. He shrugged it off as probably some sort of fox native to China or something, he didn't know, he wasn't an expert on animals. He was a fucking cav scout (and damn proud of it).

Walking back to the tent he felt groggy. He made sure his gun was clean and his exoskeleton was functioning before plopping down on a mattress. He gave in to his sleepiness as he closed his eyes and began to snore ever so slightly.

**4 AM the next day...**

Jon's face was serene looking as he laid down in a seemingly perpetual stillness. Unfortunately for him, his stillness wouldn't last forever as he was lightly punched in the gut by George.

"Brown, we gotta wake up, it's 4 AM. You plan on sleeping all day you lazy ass?"

"Shut up shut up, I'm getting the hell up just give me some time..."

George smirked, "You are aware that I am, in fact, your LEADER right? You're just the de facto leader guy."

Jon chuckled at George's "smart-assery" as he got up and stretched. His back made multiple different pops as Jon sighed deeply. The sun wasn't anywhere near out yet as it was 4 AM and it was winter here in China. The sky was cloudy and there was a slight drizzle which foreshadowed the torrential downpour that would occur in just a couple hours.

The boys packed up their bags as they put on their exoskeletons. Jon put on his exoskeleton and right away he felt the power at his fingertips. He then put on the bulky SPCS and grabbed his MK1. He looked at his teammates and saw that they were all ready to go. _P__erfect_ he thought to himself. The time read 4:50 AM, they had ten minutes before they had to pack in to their HUMVEE-M2 vehicle.

Jon looked towards his men, "Alright guys let's hop in, I got shotgun."

Bravo called gunner, Buddy called driver, and Poker Face got to sit in the back.

Jon confirmed that he was ready by checking his ammo once more before hopping into the HUMVEE-M2. His blood pumped, in a couple of hours he would meet the enemy once again. In a couple of hours, he would once again be serving on the front-lines for the country he loved so dearly.

**Chang'an AO, 6:50 AM, Western China...**

The air was cold as it stung the skin on Jon's face. The sky was still an extremely dark grey, almost as if night had yet to fully pass, and the rain was pouring as it made little "pit pat" noises on the front facing ballistic window shields. It had been just a little under two hours since they left the base and they were finally at the area in which the PLA was reported to be hiding at.

The specialist was ever so wary of his surroundings. The PLA soldiers, although not as equipped as the American troops, were by no means any sort of pushovers. They were intelligent, resilient, and capable. For that, he respected them immensely. His eyes scanned the area around him as they pulled into a small village by the name of Chang'an according to the maps. They were in a rural area of China and it showed as the houses looked like they were stuck in the 17th century. Small huts dominated the village landscape and rice paddies were visible not too far off from the outskirts of the village.

The whole place was a ghost town from what the team could see as the HUMVEE-M2 stopped at the entrance to the town. Farm equipment was strewn throughout the place, the tools so terribly rusted to the point where a simple scratch could almost guarantee a tetanus infection.

The entrance to the houses were blown off in most cases which suggested that the retreating Chinese troops forcefully evacuated the citizens that once used to live here.

_I doubt they evacuated them peacefully... The soldiers were probably starving and told them to either get out or get shot._

He grimaced at the thought until George took him out off his small trance.

"This place is fucking empty, I don't like it. We should just call for a massive bombardment before going in. Bradley doesn't even want prisoners anyway."

Jon thought about the situation they were in. On one hand, the bombardment of the village would guarantee 100% safety. On the other hand however, if there were any remaining civilians inside, they would be nothing but monsters. Even if the world never found out, Jon wouldn't be able to live with himself. He debated internally for a few seconds before he came to the conclusion.

"We can't do that. There may still be civilians in hiding and we can't just kill them. There should only be a small under-supplied contingent of PLA in this area, I'm betting we can clear them out without any indirect fire support. We should look for any remaining civilians first, I heard that the rural parts of China were angered at the government for having attacked us and starting the war. Some places were even reported to have gone through rebellions. If we can find some civs we may be able to pinpoint exactly where the PLA is hiding which would save us time and make our mission much safer."

Satisfied with the response, George nodded his head in agreement and kept driving until he was finally inside the village walls.

Bravo, like Jon, was also very wary of the ghost town. He shivered a little due to the cold and his nerves as he began to hover his finger around the firing mechanism of his XM308 mounted automatic 50mm grenade launcher.

The fire team kept advancing until the team heard the cry of a young woman in one of the huts. Instantly the vehicle stopped, turned around, and was parked in a secluded corner before the team leaped out. George activated the vehicle shut down to ensure that neither it nor any of the systems could operate until he deactivated shut down mode. After all, it would really suck if they came back to their vehicle only to find some random potential enemy sitting in the gunner's seat with a loaded 50mm grenade launcher.

Jon led the four man team with his pistol out since the MK1 was a little unwieldy for indoors CQC styled combat. The team arrived at the hut and took note that it was the only hut whose entrance wasn't blown off.

Jon didn't like it, he had a queasy feeling in his stomach since the building seemed to have an almost unwelcoming aura about it. Nevertheless, they proceeded.

"On my mark, okay?"

They all nodded.

Jon placed the water filled breaching charge on the back of the hut in order to surprise any enemies inside who would be watching the door instead. He locked the charge, filled it with a small amount of explosives and leaned to the side of it.

"3, 2, 1, breaching."

_BOOM!_

The breaching device went off as the soldiers rushed into the hut shouting and aiming their guns. Luckily for them, the house was empty except for a single woman who was crying on the floor, partially covered by a rug.

The soldiers slowly advanced towards her and removed the cover only to flinch collectively at what they saw. The woman was bleeding vaginally as she was most likely raped in an extremely rough manner while her legs were chewed up, disallowing her from even being able to sit up. It was a gruesome sight and the soldiers had to rely on their experience to not barf as even their training didn't prepare them for scenes so gruesome.

"Buddy, give her some first aid and check her pulse. Poker face and Bravo you guys assist him, I'll keep guard outside the hut."

They all simply nodded as George took out a first aid kit from his back and approached her. The other two followed suit and Jon walked outside while conjuring up his MK1 Garand. He watched the back of the house and occasionally the front as well. The area was still quiet as ever even though the sound from the blast of the breaching device undoubtedly resonated throughout the village. It was eerie.

Only a minute after he had went outside did he hear a scream from one of his teammates, George. Immediately he turned around and was about to rush in the house when he heard Bravo yell "IED!"

The hut exploded into millions of little pieces as Jon flew meters in the air and smashed into the cold hard earth below.

His vision began to black out as he fought to stay awake, but his entire body ached and he felt a massive headache.

"Buddy... Bravo... Poker face..."

His resolve was admirable but futile. His vision went black and his body lay limp among the debris.

Standing on the roof of one of the huts was a yellow furred, fox-like animal. It stared blankly at the scene before it.

A band of PLA soldiers from the opposite side of the village began to shout and run towards where Jon was. The yellow fox felt sorrowful.

Crawling up to the limp form of Jon. The fox picked him up and carried him back to the vehicle which was well out of sight and placed him in the gunner's seat as it had no idea in terms of how to open a door.

The fox then walked away from the vehicle, and outside of the village. It kept walking, only to disappear once again into that dark, foreboding forest. For the rest of that day it was never to be seen again.

**Amazing how one day you can be at your base playing cards and laughing the time away. Only to have an IED explode in your face the next. These are the daily fears soldiers must face, it's not an easy job. Only the most courageous can serve their country, that is no doubt.**

**Hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter. As always, there is more to come... I hope you're excited!**

**sidenote: don't be afraid to do a super quick google search for words you don't know. I don't think my writing is THAT advanced so you shouldn't need it often, but like I said, I hope to have a more high class fanfiction for serious fanfic readers out there like myself. Plus, it's always good to have more words under your vocabulary :)**

**word of the chapter! **

**contingent = a group of people united by some common feature, forming a larger group.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Western China, Chang'an AO. 12 hours since Jon was knocked out...**

The night was cold. The ground was damp, and the houses were still soggy from the rain that had stopped hours ago. The hut which had exploded was nothing but a smoldering crater now and the bodies of Jon's teammates were nowhere to be seen. They were most likely torn to tiny bits and thrown throughout the city since they were at the very center of that incredible explosion.

Jon had awoken after a lengthy 12 hours of sleep and his body still ached, albeit slightly.

His training kicked in as he immediately inspected his armor and found that all the plates in his back were torn and blackened while the back of his helmet was also all torn up. His exosuit luckily survived without too many scratches (the exosuit went underneath the armor which was designed to accommodate the shape of Jon with his exosuit on) and was fully operational.

The specialist climbed out of the gunner's seat and opened the back door of the HUMVEE-M2. After a little fiddling with a few locks he was able to open up one of the compartments in the vehicle which stored spare armor. He was faced with two options, the SPCS which focused on durability over maneuverability or the GHOST armor which incorporated meta-materials that allowed for partial invisibility. After some intense internal debating, he ultimately went with the robust SPCS. He figured that the durability was more valuable than stealth since he would be calling for a lot of indirect fire dangerously close to his position.

He closed the compartment and went to another hidden storage compartment that was protected by various levels of different locks. After 10 minutes of pure frustration he got it to open and grabbed the spare keys inside. He needed them to get the car out of shutdown mode so that he could get out of here when his mission was done; either that or wait 4 days for an "evac" team or chapter.

He took off his torn armor, slipped into the new one, and began walking towards the crater. He looked left and right, up and down, searching desperately for a sign of his teammates. He walked a few feet north of the crater and found Bravo's M41 LMG. The pitiful machinery was badly damaged. The barrel was warped and the plastic stock was all but vaporized, the bullet cases were all empty since the blast cooked off the ammunition and set it off (which explained why there was a single bullet stuck in the back of his torn SPCS when he inspected it).

Grabbing the pitiful piece of metal, he brought it back to the Humvee and stored it out of respect. Then a thought struck him.

_Wait a minute, I woke up in the Humvee... But, I could have sworn I passed out from the explosion far away from the vehicle..._ Jon tried to recall the events that happened shortly after the blast but his mind betrayed his wishes as he couldn't remember anything.

The weary soldier continued on once again to the impromptu grave of his teammates. He found a helmet but he didn't know who it belonged to, nevertheless he packed it into the HUMVEE-M2 along with the LMG. He was about to return once again when he heard foreign voices shouting from the East. He brought his hand to where his MK1 should have been but couldn't find it. He checked his holster but couldn't find his pistol either.

_SHIT! Where did I pass out? The MK1 should be there at the very least. SHIT SHIT SHIT I gotta find it!_

He panicked slightly before running up to the crater once more. The noises were getting a little louder and his time was running out.

Looking towards a fence near the back of the hut he saw his gun, lying next to a little piece of debris. The specialist sprinted towards the gun and picked it up, the paint was a little blackened but the barrel was still perfectly straight and the gun seemed to be in working condition. The scope luckily survived the blast but it was dirty and the voices were loud now. He had no time to clean it properly so he wiped it with hand and then lied down in the debris.

Within a minute he saw them.

Three PLA soldiers were walking towards his direction and at this point were hardly 75 feet away from him. The scout stayed silent as they kept walking towards the smoldering crater, slowly but surely bringing his Garand to bare.

_Hmm, safety is off, I checked the mag in the gun, looks loaded and ready to fire to me._

Satisfied with the condition of his gun, Jon looked through the scope and turned on the night vision as he brought the cross-hairs on to first PLA soldier. The beautiful night sky above provided a natural cloak for him as if to say that it approved with what he was about to do. The ever so lustrous moon shone brightly on the PLA soldiers, yet forgot about the specialist who was hardly 75 feet away from them.

It happened in an instant. To be honest, it was even kind of anticlimactic. The once arrogant PLA soldiers were nothing but bloodied bodies lying on the floor filled with bullet holes. Not a single sound resonated throughout the night nor was the killer anywhere to be seen. Little did the Foreign soldiers know that the grave of the Americans would be their grave as well. Two enemies at war with each other, yet in the end they share the same fate in the same place.

**Chang'An AO, 3 AM the next day...**

Jon hid the bodies of the soldiers he killed under the debris and spat on them. After having dealt with them, he continued to search for signs of his teammates. Sadly for him, the search was in vain as nothing came of it. He tried to radio in Bradley but he didn't get anything but static. The radio refused to work at such a pivotal moment.

_How fucking cliche. A lone scout stuck in the middle of a fucking battlefield and his radio doesn't work. HOW FUCKING CLICHE._

The scout smashed his radio into the ground in a fit of rage, a decision he would later come to regret as he realized that he just destroyed the last piece of hope he had in terms of long range communication. The specialist sighed deeply to himself as he slouched for a moment. He wasn't tired; he slept for 12 hours even though he didn't mean to. He obviously wasn't happy either even though he just bagged 3 tangos. He was simply becoming apathetic to it all. The lustrous moon was simply the moon to him now, and the exotic plants may just as well have been bundles of wheat to him and nothing more.

He looked over at the PLA soldiers he had killed when he noticed a slight static noise playing in one of the bodies.

_Oh shit._

He ran over to the bodies and flipped them over one by one until he saw it. On the belts of one of the soldiers was a radio that was still turned on. Static played, but more importantly, there were shouts on the other side which he couldn't understand. The scout grew wide eyed and ran over to the HUMVEE-M2 before turning it on.

Jon's suspicions were confirmed, there were more noises coming from the East again, this time however, there were a lot more than just three voices. When he killed the three soldiers he didn't take into account that their commander would want to check up on their status.

He hit the gas and lurched backwards as the Humvee's wheels span violently against the mud. He turned left towards the forest hoping that they wouldn't follow him and drove straight in. The trees were tall and the moon was nowhere to be seen. He flicked on the lights and kept driving straight through the forest. The truck bounced violently on the uneven forest floor and every two seconds Jon would have a near miss with a giant tree. Nevertheless, he persevered and kept driving.

**Dark, foreboding forest, on the branch of a tree, 4 AM the next day...**

The Kitsune merely stood on top of the branch of a tree as she listened to the sound of the vehicle coming her way from far out. Neither the fox's sleek figure nor face portrayed any emotion whatsoever, although at first glance one would think that she may have been angry due to her dark and thin eyes that seemed to penetrate deeply into everything they looked at.

The yellow fox recalled its saving of the human.

Never before had the fox seen such a human. All of the humans back in the other world, her world, just wore light shirts and such but that human was garbed in a clothing that looked extremely heavy and cumbersome. The clothes were also all stitched in strange patterns of grey and light grey squares. In fact, all of the humans she had seen so far in this world seemed to be dressed in such a way; they all also carried strange looking guns that were thinner than any blaster she had ever seen, they almost seemed tiny and weak in comparison.

The particular human she saved wore an extremely bulky set of clothing. In fact, when she carried him over to his car she grunted under the strain due to his sheer weight. Then there was his car. She had never seen such an... Angular design on a car before. It also seemed extremely heavy and armored and had a huge version of the guns the humans carried mounted on top of it. When she thought about it, it was probably unwise for her to have put the guy so close to that huge gun, had he woken up he may have shot at her for various reasons she wouldn't have ever known.

Her thinking was interrupted as the noise from the car was getting ever so slightly louder.

_It's probably the creature I saved, perhaps he followed me. Perhaps he is wondering who I am. Perhaps... He wishes to thank me for helping him. Whatever the reason, I think I outta intercept him and introduce myself if possible, he might be very confused._

She leaped from her tree to another, and then another, and she finally got a tree hopping rhythm going. She was going to confront the mysterious and heavily garbed man and ask him why he decided to follow her. More importantly though, she needed to ask him where she even was.

**Dark, foreboding forest, inside the HUMVEE-M2, 4:20 AM...**

To say that this was extremely dangerous is an understatement. Jon was making sharp turns left and right every other second, narrowly avoiding giant trees that he would have otherwise smashed into at at least 30 miles per hour. The trees were so tall and ominous that even with his lights on it felt as if nothing but darkness engulfed his vision as he continued making sharp turns.

All of a sudden, a yellow glimmer appeared in the corner of his eye and then disappeared in an instant. The glimmer of yellow didn't even register in his brain as he was more focused on not smashing into a tree, but then it appeared once again in the corner of his vision.

The second time he took notice of it.

_Am I just seeing things? Bright yellow flashes in a dark-ass forest in the middle of Rural China?_

Jon looked to his right just for a second and at that moment he saw it.

A yellow fox-like creature. It was sleek, somewhat tall (perhaps only an inch or two shorter than him?), and incredibly fast. It was also looking at-

"FUCK!"

_SMASH_

**Dark, foreboding forest, inside the HUMVEE-M2, 3 PM...**

"Son of a fucking bitch my head hurts like shit..."

Jon grabbed his forehead in pain, the HUMVEE-M2 was totaled. He had slammed it directly into a giant rock going at least 30 MPH, most likely even more. He was fucked, he knew it. The radio was out, the HUMVEE-M2 was inoperable at this point, and he was the sole survivor in his entire fire team. If het met the enemy in combat he would have to find a different way to relay coordinates to the artillery to get indirect fire, in other words, he was all alone in a dark forest in the middle of nowhere with no outside support and with his entire team gone due to an IED.

"FUCK!" Jon breathed heavily as he started to grasp the situation he was in. He began hyperventilating slightly and checked his rations and water amount to cool himself down. He had around 2 days worth on his body and a good week or two worth of food and water in the remains of the HUMVEE-M2. He had a couple of flares ready should command try and rescue him (which they should try after losing contact for a certain amount of time).

Still, he was nervous. His hands shook slightly as he looked all around him. He couldn't see a thing even though it was the middle of the day for the thick, tall, and ominous trees blocked out any of what little light there was outside (unbeknownst to him it was yet another cloudy day so there wasn't much light to begin with).

"Light, fuck I need light. Uhhh..."

He fiddled with his vest until he remembered that his helmet had night vision specs as well as a mounted manual flashlight in case the night vision ever failed or he needed light.

He flicked the switch on and instantly a beam of bright blueish light shone out from his helmet and revealed everything in front of him. Through the window he was unable to see anything but rock. To his side was the HUMVEE-M2 storage monitor which shined only a tiny bit on its own. It still read the words "FOOD AND WATER SUPPLY = APPROX. 5 DAYS FOR FIRETEAM (which translated into around two weeks for a single soldier)" He already knew that after doing a little mental math before.

He looked to his left and opened the door, bringing his MK1 to bear as he stepped out.

_Thank god this baby is durable as hell, I would've been screwed other wise__._

He looked to his left and right and proceeded slowly to the back of the HUMVEE-M2 to check on his ammunition supply.

"Hello human."

"FUCKING SHIT!"

He spun around and aimed his MK1 straight ahead of him until he saw who it was that spoke. There in front of him was the fox-like creature. It was yellow, tall, kind of mean looking when you studied its face, but most of all, it was standing as if it were a human.

_WHAT THE FUCK! WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING!_

"WHO AND WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU!"

"That's no way to speak to a lady!"

"DON'T FUCK WITH ME OR I'LL SHOOT YOU WHATEVER THE HELL YOU ARE!"

Jon pushed back the bolt on the MK1 to make sure a round was chambered and ready to fire. Although the fox didn't understand the movement, she clearly realized that Jon was acting hostile. He noticed her slightly move back and hunch a little as if she was ready to jump.

"TELL ME NOW WHO AND WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU! I'M WARNING YOU! I WILL SHOOT!"

"My name is Renamon and I am a digimon."

The scout blinked but kept his weapon up, he wasn't sure how to react but he felt that she was fucking with him. Or maybe he was hallucinating...

_Oh shit, I know what's going on. My team is dead, I've got PTSD or something now and I'm seeing shit. I'm seeing shit that isn't there. I crashed my fucking car because of my fucking hallucinations and now there's a chance that I might slowly starve to death in this fucking forest if I don't get rescued in 2 weeks. I'm a crazy motherfucker that's the issue. It all started because of those PLA FUCKS. They killed my fucking team, and now I'm a crazy fucking bastard whose seeing weird fucking animals that speak._

Jon lowered the rifle and put the safety on. He went back to the HUMVEE-M2 and took a little bit of water. He pulled out an MRE and prepared it for himself once he realized he was starving. He seemed to pay the fox no attention at all, figuring that she was nothing but a hallucination of his.

"Two things are going to happen to me. I'm going to get rescued and then they're going to find out that I'm fucking crazy and put me in a rehab center or I'm going to fucking die out here while the world moves on and the war rages on. A lost soldier, never to be fucking remembered by anyone except by his parents back home and maybe Bradley. 3 Fucking people are going to remember me if I die that's it. 3 fucking people and a fucking hallucination are going to be all that remembers me."

He took a few bites of his MRE before he got up, went to the rock, and smashed his fist into it.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!"

He knelt down by the rock and did nothing but cry. What else was he to do? He was a broken man with nothing to look forward to. He didn't have a family back home. He had no wife, no kids, and no friends. His only friends were his teammates, and they were all scraped away from him in a millisecond because he was too careless to think that the PLA wouldn't plan on the American forces following after them. Of course they knew, and they set up a sick trap using live bait in the form of a raped and battered woman. It was despicable.

"Fucking savages ruined everything..."

He looked up after having cried for about a minute only to once again see that fox in front of him just staring at him blankly.

"What the fuck do you want? What the fuck are you all angry about? Did you lose your fucking friends? huh?"

The fox tilted her head in a rather questioning manner as it didn't seem to understand what he was talking about. He got up and he was pissed.

"I'm talking to you, what the fuck are you staring at me all angrily for huh? What the fuck is your issue huh? What the FUCK have you LOST? HUH? FUCKING TELL ME YOU PIECE OF SHIT! STOP STARING AT ME BECAUSE I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU YOU STUPID FUCKING HALLUCINATION!"

He balled his hands into fists and tried to punch the fox, but she jumped in the air and he missed.

He tumbled forward and fell on to the smashed truck.

"Just leave me alone... If only for two seconds, leave me the fuck alone."

He turned around and then slumped to the ground in a surrendering manner. He looked above him only to see that god forsaken fox once again simply staring at him blankly from above as if she were sent by the devil just to torture him in his final days with those dark and seemingly unforgiving eyes.

**It's OK Browning. We'll never forget the soldiers who bravely fight for our respective countries.**

**I just felt a little inspired today after I finished my homework so I just started writing and... Well, you got a whole new chapter in just a single day. That being said, if you think you see any mistakes just leave a review, I'm going to re-read this chapter 2 times to check for any mistakes so as to ensure that you guys have an absolute pleasurable experience reading the fanfic without having to mentally correct any grammar mistakes.**

**Anyways, hope you enjoyed! And remember, more is to come...**


	4. Chapter 4

**Dark, foreboding forest 4:30 PM...**

It had been a little over an hour now and Jon was simply eating in silence. He payed the fox, or "Renamon," no mind as she simply sat on top of the tree and observed him with those annoying as hell and mean looking eyes.

_Jesus Christ this thing has so much goddamn patience. How long has it been?_

Jon Checked the time and took note that it had been exactly an hour and a half since his whole "trying to punch a hallucination" fiasco. He kept nibbling his MRE until he finally finished the package of food. Afterwards, he merely sat in silence, partially mourning for his lost teammates and partially planning as to what he was going to do from there on out.

_It's a shame to see them go, but at the end of the day I still have a mission to complete. I didn't make it that far in the forest so I should be able to head back to the AO on foot in relatively good time. I gotta finish off those disgusting bastards once and for all._

As he got up, he took note of the armor he had. Perhaps, given his new situation in which indirect fire was not available, he should switch out to the stealthier armor.

With a small grunt, Jon walked over to the back of the smashed vehicle and began to take off his SPCS.

Renamon, intrigued by the armor system, merely continued watching him.

_Interesting, the heavy garb is coming off, for what reason? _She thought to herself.

As Jon stored the SPCS in the truck he took out the GHOST armor and immediately Renamon noticed the vast difference between the two armors. Giving in to curiosity, she jumped down from her branch and walked up to Jon. Once she reached him she began scrutinizing the strange armor he had in his hands.

Jon noticed her and looked at her for a second.

"What the hell do you want? Oh I see, you like this armor?" He waved the light armor around and the fox simply nodded.

As her curiosity got the best of her she finally spoke up for the first time since the punch incident, "How is that clothing... Doing that?"

Jon smiled, "As a hallucination, you're a figment of my imagination right? Therefor you come from my brain, and since I know how this armor works so should you."

Renamon simply tilted her head and frowned slightly at his reply, unsure of what he was even talking about.

"I'm not a hallucination, where ever did you even get such an idea?"

"Shut up, I need to put this armor on and head back to the AO to finish those bastards off. I don't need a hallucination bothering me the whole way there."

"I'm just as real as you are..."

"Yeah yeah whatever, if you're going to follow me then shut the hell up and stay out of my sight when I'm aiming."

The scout put on the armor and immediately he began to blend in with the surroundings. The GHOST armor provides a transparency rate of around 80% transparency, so the once bright grey soldier turned in to a dark almost unnoticeable blob. The GHOST armor also came with GHOST tactical weapon, helmet, and legging covering which would be attached to their respective places in order to make the soldier mostly invisible. After he made sure his armor was working he immediately set off in the opposite direction of where his truck was facing towards Chang'an.

"On the rooooooad again, all by myself with just a hallucination for company..."

Jon began to sing a little tune as he walked through the forest, a familiar one that had been around for about a century now.

"March along, sing our song, with the army of the free  
Count the brave, count the true, who have fought to victory  
We're the army and proud of our name  
We're the army and proudly proclaim

First to fight, for the right  
And to build the nation's might  
And the army goes rolling along  
Proud of all we have done  
Fighting till the battle's won  
And the army goes rolling along

Then it's HI HI HEY!  
The army's on its way  
Count off the cadence loud and strong  
For where er'e we go  
You will always know  
That the army goes rolling along

Valley forge, Custer's ranks  
San Juan Hill and Patton's tanks  
And the army went rolling along..."

**Chang'an AO 6:45 PM...**

Jon reached the AO in a slightly pissed off manner. As he had predicted, the bright yellow vixen had followed him the entire way to the village.

Casting his annoyance aside, he turned around and quickly debriefed her on what she could and couldn't do.

"Alright world's most annoying hallucination, I've got a job to do and you can't interfere. Let's lay down some ground rules since you seem to be independent despite being my hallucination. Rule #1 You cannot go in front of me, you'll fuck things up. Rule #2 no shouting, I can still hear you, although you're not bad about being noisy so I'll give you that. Rule #3 When I'm in the zone engaging the PLA, don't interact with me in any way, I can't lose my focus. Got it?"

The vixen, still frowning from his misunderstanding, nodded her head.

The two entered the village cautiously as Jon stuck to the walls and corners to maximize his camouflage. The bright yellow fox however, stuck out like a sore thumb with her bright yellow coat in contrast to the dark, damp, and destroyed huts. Honestly, she didn't have that much of an idea in terms of what was going on (she had never been in a war before, sure she's been in plenty of battles with other digimon, but never was she in a legitimate large scale war complete with all the different facets of war involved) and she had no clue that she should have been hiding with him in the corners.

15 minutes after they had entered the village Jon finally spotted some of the PLA forces.

"Tangos spotted, preparing to engage."

The PLA soldiers were completely unaware of the scout who was a good 165 or so feet away from them. Jon had been getting his aim corrected the entire time and was finally feeling confident that he had a good shot. There were 4 PLA soldiers in total so his target acquisition had to be fast and accurate in order to down them all at once.

The marksman slowed his breathing and went the left most target of them all. He lined up his cross-hairs and said his mental prayers before taking the first shot.

In an instant, the high speed .30-06C bullet traveled through the air and smacked the PLA soldier center mass (chest area), completely penetrating his armor before puncturing his lungs. The shock-wave of the bullet ripped his insides up as his heart was torn and his spleen exploded. The soldier dropped dead instantly.

Hardly half a second later another bullet shot through the air and punctured the skull of one of the remaining PLA soldiers, dropping him in a second.

At this point the other two shouted as they knew what was going and tried to run for cover, but just before they made their mad dash a third bullet sliced through the air and tore open one of the two remaining soldiers' heart.

The last PLA soldier was able to run under cover, safe from any long range fire.

_Goddammit, he's got cover, he might be requesting back-up right now._

Renamon simply stood bemused at the whole scene. Never before had she seen such a thing. Jon pulled the trigger on his skinny little blaster and immediately the soldiers who were a good distance in front of her (although she had great eye sight so she could see them clearly) dropped dead. Blood oozed from their bodies and in some cases the bullet was so strong that some of their insides blew out the other side of their bodies. She had never witnessed something really die before. Every time she battled digimon they would just disappear into fine digital dust in the air once they were defeated. This way of dying, with blood spattered everywhere and the guts strewn across the floor made her feel sick. Even though she understood the concept of biological beings dying she never knew that in fights they could die in such a horrifying way that would have made even the strongest of digimon hurl.

"Follow me ya little shit we gotta take that last guy out."

Jon looked at her and noticed her just standing in shock. He got aggravated, whether she liked it or not, her standing there was distracting him at a critical moment.

"Goddammit you stupid piece of shit I said follow me!"

He made to grab her and when he put his arm around hers he felt something. It was fur, soft fur, and there was substance behind that fur. He could feel the muscles behind the fur of the arm he grabbed and his eyes opened wide. The realization struck him.

In the midst of his realization, he didn't notice the PLA soldier rearing his head around the corner looking to take a shot. The digimon and mostly-invisible man were simply sitting ducks staring dumbly into space.

The PLA soldier fired his AK 103 derivative but couldn't really tell what was there other than a yellow blob in the corner.

The bullets slowly ripped through the air and smashed the hut next to the dazed digimon, bringing Jon back to reality.

"Shit he knows we're here!"

Another bullet from the AK went flying through the air before impacting against Jon's armor, knocking the wind right out of him for a couple seconds, but the armor stayed true and prevented the bullet from doing any more harm than that.

Jon, having regained his senses, grabbed onto the Digimon's arm and dragged her into the debris with him. He grabbed a few piece of debris lying down and made a tiny wall in front of them. It wasn't really a strong wall but with a few pieces of concrete that were nearby it definitely provided SOMETHING in terms of protection.

"Hey you! You need to get the hell out of here now, this is going to be a full fledged firefight and I can't look after your ass if you get hit!"

The fox regained her senses and jumped high into the air before disappearing from Jon's view.

"You have to be fucking kidding me... That fox could have just done that the entire time..."

He noticed that the PLA soldier stopped shooting and he decided to take his head out of cover to see what the situation was.

The Chinese soldier was standing dumbfounded at what he had just seen. One second he was shooting at a yellow blob, the next second that blob jumps high in the air and disappears. Jon capitalized on the enemy's confusion and lined up his shot.

The .30-06C bullet silently exited the barrel of the gun and traveled straight through the air before smashing through the soldier's left eye. It punctured his eye and went straight through his brain and exited the back of his skull, leaving a huge chunk of brain matter on the floor.

"Don't fuck with the cav scouts bro."

Jon stood up and surveyed the area before approaching the dead bodies.

He laughed a little once he reached them. The soldiers wore an obsolete standard steel plating armor and had decades old AK 103s that were also obsolete (the big but very slow bullets couldn't punch through even the lighter GHOST armor).

His mind wandered towards the strange fox.

"Where the hell did that thing jump off to?" He thought aloud.

Jon kept moving on with the mission as he ventured off deeper and deeper into the village, eventually passing the once smoldering grave of his teammates. His gut screamed at him to turn around and get the hell out of here but his sense of duty kept his head looking straight forward and his legs moving forward.

At that moment, he heard a slight thump behind him and immediately he turned around and brought up his Garand.

"Oh it's you again..."

The bright yellow fox merely frowned slightly at his response before she herself spoke up in an apologetic tone.

"It was cowardly for me to have simply abandoned you. I've fought many foes before, but, never like this... This is different, the deaths are horrendous compared to fighting other digimon, it's almost disgusting."

Jon smiled at her innocence.

"Welcome to war. After a couple days you get used to it and realize that it's either their brains out on the street or yours. And what the fuck is a digimon?"

Renamon tilted her head at his question.

"Do you not know of digimon?"

"No, am I supposed to? In fact, by discovering you I think I pretty much just discovered a new species."

The digimon collected herself before informing him about digimon.

"Digimon is short for digital monster. Digital monsters are creatures that-"

_BOOM!_

A mortar shell landed a dozen yards from them in a hut and blew it up, sending wooden shrapnel everywhere.

"I'll listen to you some other time, but I think for today we gotta evac this place and go back to the camp, they're calling mortar fire on our position and I don't wanna stick around any longer."

_Three more PLA soldiers down, not that good for an entire day but it's 3 more closer to finishing this mission_ he thought to himself.

**Dark, foreboding forest 8:15 PM...**

The duo sat by the HUMVEE sharing an MRE as Renamon talked about digimon.

Jon learned the basics. Essentially, digimon were a digital race (yet they somehow had biological/biological based bodies which confused him) of monsters who were created after humanity began developing computers and the internet. They came in all shapes and forms and ever since an algorithm was made for them by some guy way back when they could even evolve. Renamon was the name of the particular digimon that was sitting next to him. She really wasn't sure as to how she ended up in his world.

Another thing he took note of about the world she was living in before was that it sounded as if the humane race there was technologically behind several decades.

"Okay I get it. So in essence, you're a digital "monster" although you just look like a variation of a fox to me. You also have some pretty cool combat techniques, you can jump really fucking high and run super fucking fast while at the same time remaining rather silent. You could be a useful asset to me but for now since I have yet to see anything I'll just assume your as capable as an unarmed and untrained civilian."

At that remark, Renamon seemed slightly aggravated. Her already thin eyes became thinner in a sort of glare.

"Sorry, but it's the first time humanity here has ever met a fairy tale. But come hell or high water I'm finishing this goddamn mission, so until you show me that you can be an asset, I'm going to ask you to please stay out of my way."

"I'm far from defenseless."

Jon rolled his eyes.

"Perhaps so, but you have to show me something cool and useful and maybe I'll reconsider."

Renamon stood up and leaped high in the air as Jon, while watching her, continued to eat from his MRE. After a couple seconds Jon heard a small thump behind him.

He turned around only to be greeted by Jon.

"What... The... ffff..."

Jon stared at his mirror image. The armor, his light face, his dark brown hair, his brown eyes, everything was the same. The only things missing were things not "directly" attached to him like his MK1 Garand. It was the freakiest thing he had ever seen.

A smirking Renamon then looked at his name tag shortly before saying "Hello, my name is Jon" in a voice that matched his perfectly.

Jon however took note that she looked at his nametag and began to punish her for her mistake.

"Alright Jon, what is your pay grade? What is your MOS? What is your MOSC? What country do you fight for? Who is your commander?"

Renamon froze up and Jon immediately stepped forth and admonished her.

"That's a very neat trick you got there. In fact, that can get you many places, and it can help me finish this mission in a millisecond. The only issue is that even though you can take on the appearance of others you can't necessarily blend in all too well since you don't know jack crap. At the very best, once you infiltrate the PLA they'll suspect you're sick or something since you most likely don't understand their language and you won't understand half of what they say due to your lack of knowledge about the military and its organization."

Renamon, although taken aback, was able to correct him on one of his points.

"I come from the digital world, although I may not understand these organizations I certainly understand multiple languages, assuming that the languages here are 100% identical to the languages in my other world since you and I can understand and speak to each other."

"Alright, I concede 10% of my point, but you're still not ready in terms of sabotage. Hold up for a second."

Jon took out his tactical tablet from inside his armor.

"Unfortunately, the WiFi is all but dead here since this primitive part of China has yet to ever do anything about its infrastructure. That being said though, I still have an app from when I was taking classes at the training program. In there you'll find almost everything you need to know about the military. It's a crap-ton of stuff to take in considering the short time frame we have but so long as you can get the very basics you should be able to blend in with the PLA guys. Their army might be structured in a slightly different way but I doubt there is too wide of a gap, and if you have general knowledge you should be able to pick up on what they're talking about anyway."

Renamon smiled as she fiddled with the piece of communications-centered technology.

"I'm a digimon, my origin lies with technology like this. I can soak up every ounce of information on this tablet in a nano-second if I so wished."

"Then do it and go to sleep or something. We've got a day ahead of us tomorrow and we need to be ready to deliver massive damage to the enemy, got it? A soldier well slept is a soldier well kept and a soldier well kept is a soldier you don't wanna fuck with."

Jon turned off his helmet flashlight as Renamon sat there with his tablet, fiddling with it. It was a machine she had never seen and yet she felt connected to it on an unprecedented level. It took her all of one minute to learn everything she could learn from the app before she turned it off and curled up to go to sleep.

**Chang 'an AO, 10 PM...**

Colonel Liu Wei observed the footage that one of his soldiers had sent to him before being taken out by the Americans. In the footage was what appeared to be a tall and slender yellow fox hundreds of feet away from the camera the soldier had.

The colonel grunted in anger at the loss of his six troops the past two days. Once the commander of a mighty battalion he was now down to only a platoon-full of men at best. He had around 25 capable soldiers and 10 wounded soldiers. He couldn't receive any sort of aid since the Americans had pushed to the east of his position, effectively cutting him off from the rest of mainland China. Basically, what he had was simply what he had and nothing more.

"We need to strike at the American operative on our terms, not his. At this point we're just going to be scraped little by little until we have a gashing wound from which we can never recover. It's bad enough our battalion has been reduced to this, we cannot allow a single American to take us all out like this. Set up cameras around the perimeter of the village, first we need to find out where he's coming from. Then, we can strike at him and kill him. His fire-team is already dead so he's just a one man army along with this peculiar yellow fox whom we will capture once we've dealt with the American. You are all dismissed, don't fail me."

The aggravated colonel waved his hands at his men before climbing into his bed.

**Dark, foreboding forest, 11 PM...**

Jon was sleeping peacefully. The weary soldier, isolated from the world, his world at least, would live to fight another day, and ultimately that was all he cared about when he _truly_ thought about it.

**The irony in this story... Too much! Bleh XD**

**Anyways, like always, I'll be re-reading this thing like CRAP too make sure I spot any mistakes, feel free to leave a review if you find anything and always feel free to leave a little ol like for little ol me :3**

**Word of the chapter (I forgot to do this for last chapter rofl, I so sorry! This is like, going to be my tradition. Something that no author does, I wanna be unique, like, have my own personality ya know?) = bemused**

**bemuse = to be puzzled, confused, etc.**

**Military stuff = target acquisition**

**Target acquisition = the detection, identification, and determining of the location of a target in sufficient detail in order to permit the effective employment of force, be it lethal or non-lethal in nature.**

**Like always, more is to come... (Yay we beat the 10k word barrier! This story is officially legitimate and not just one of those stories where the author gets excited, makes a couple chapters, and abandons it!)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Dark, foreboding forest, 4 AM...**

Renamon was curled up in a ball as she slept peacefully on the forest ground. Her gold and white fur managed to stay pristine despite the dirtiness of the world around her. The dark purple sleeves on her long and slender arms spoke of nothing but elogance, exoticism, and character. She truly was a wonderful sight to behold. She was a magnificent creature with rather stunning features.

"Rise and shine little miss sunshine, it's almost time to head out."

The fox opened her eyes and looked at Jon who was putting his armor on. Today he decided to go with that extremely bulky armor which made her wonder out loud.

"Why are you not putting on the invisible clothing?"

Jon smiled at her naiveté.

"Well, first off, that armor is damaged and is currently undergoing self repairs on the active camoflauge. If I were to put it on you would see me camoflauged all the way except for a rather large bullet hole in the chest area. Not to mention, by the time we get to the village, the sun is going to be up and if I remember correctly today there aren't going to be any clouds or rain."

Jon finished putting on his armor and closed the trunk of the damaged car.

"We've got a little time. I didn't expect you to be able to absorb the whole goddamn app in just a minute, so this is where I get to learn more about your origins since you know a lot about my military and in essence, me. So how the hell did you get here?"

Renamon thought to herself for a second about how she even got to this world.

**Shinjuku ward of Tokyo, 2001...**

"Wow that is one big portal." Rika thought to herself out loud.

Renamon stood beside her most trusted friend, Rika, as the two looked on at a massive portal that had randomly appeared in the middle of a secluded area in Shinjuku. It was a strange portal that was tinted in a negative white. The energy it gave off was also strange; it was nothing like the usual portals that would appear and bring people from the real world to the digital world and back.

"That portal is unstable and is giving off an energy we've never seen. I'd advise that we call for the counsel of Takato and Henry before we try anything."

Rika agreed, it was a strange portal that's they had never before seen and it would probably be best if she got her friends to weigh in on the issue of doing something with it.

**Shinjuku ward of Tokyo, 2001, secluded area, 1 hour later...**

The trio stood looking at the rather large and strangely colored portal. Takato took one look at it and immediately he was excited and wanted to venture in. Rika was excited too. Henry, although a little more reserved than the other two, was a little excited at their discovery.

"Rika this is AMAZING how did you find it?" Takato questioned.

"Well, it was actually Renamon who felt something strange. She brought me here and we saw this huge and ugly portal. Apparently, it's giving off strange energy according to Renamon."

Takato took a step closer and tried to peer into the portal. Inside the void was nothing but a light negative coloring. It was the most peculiar thing the trio had ever seen. Takato took one step closer to try and get a better look when suddenly the portal sucked him into its endless void.

"TAKATO!" Rika screamed as she followed inside after her friend.

Renamon made to grab Rika to hold her back, unsure of what entailed if one went into the strange portal. Unfortunately, she failed to get her on time as Rika ran straight into the portal.

"No Rika!" Just like the two who disappeared before her, she foolishly ran into the portal.

**Endless void, ?, ?...**

There was nothing. There was no ground below Renamon, just a red mist. There was no sky either, just an endless cloud of red. It was almost strange that a white portal would led to a red void.

Out in the distance were white sort of upright buoys that had circles that would rotate around them. They were all interconnected with a seemingly powerful electricity passing through each of them that almost made Renamon scared to touch them. The white buoys were all indistinguishable from each other although the electricity between each buoy would have different colors.

The electricity that was connected to the buoy closest to hers was a negative white, similar to the color she had seen when they looked at the portal back in Tokyo.

Using logic, she figured that the only place those two would have traveled is to the nearest buoy. She put her faith in her logic and walked toward the buoy. As she inched closer, her body began to glow ever so softly. However, as she got really close, her body grew extremely bright until finally she was close enough and the buoy absorbed her body. It stole her away from the endless red void.

The energy that passed through Renamon was immense, and as it surged through her body it was extremely painful. However, she was able to withstand it all until finally it stopped.

There was nothing but darkness around her. As her eyes began to adjust though, she saw nothing but huge ominous trees all around her. As she stood still in utter silence, her ears also began to focus in on a noise in the distance. It was a noise she recognized. civilization was near.

**Dark, foreboding forest, 4:20 AM...**

Jon listened rather thoughtfully to the strange creature's words. For the first time since the two met, he began to recognize that her voice was rather feminine. That was something important to take note of he thought to himself. As she finished her somewhat long story about how she came to this world, he thought about it for a little bit until he checked the the time on his watch. It was four twenty in the morning so they had to get going.

"Well if I do say so myself, that's a rather interesting story you got there. That being said, we really do need to be expedient about my mission because at the end of the day those damn PLA soldiers aren't going to kill themselves." He chuckled a little at the last part whereas Renamon simply stared blankly at him.

Jon picked himself up from the ground and went to the back of his HUMVEE. After the trunk closed and he walked back into her sight, she noticed the skinny but apparently deadly long gun he had slung over his shoulder. Jon picked up on her discomfort with the gun and reassured her that unless she attacked him, he wouldn't ever point the barrel at her.

The two began their somewhat long journey through the forest as they headed toward Chang'an. Jon had become so accustomed to this route that it almost seemed second nature to him. He recognized certain trees and plants along the way which allowed him to navigate the forest rather easily whenever he was retreating to the HUMVEE.

They marched along rather silently. Renamon wasn't the talking type, and Jon was quick to catch on to that. However, she also wasn't a distant figure either as she always seemed to listen perfectly to anything he said. She certainly was a strange figure to behold. Her intelligence was undoubted yet she knew nothing about the subject of war and how gruesome and organized it was. From what he had heard from her, back in her world there were a bunch of Digimon just like her who would get into fights usually because of corruption.

However, the differences between these fights and actual war were astronomical. In fact, they were so different that apparently little toddlers were the ones who would train the Digimon and have them fight other Digimon. For all purposes, Renamon may as well have been about as experienced as a 1 year old when it comes to actually killing someone.

"So you've never seen someone die before?" Jon probed.

"I've seen pictures of it, but I have never seen it in real life nor have I ever seen something as gruesome as that." She said in reference to Jon blowing the PLA soldier's brains on the ground.

"Welcome to the real world kiddo. Remember, follow my instructions otherwise you might end up like that."

"Actually, digimon don't really die per se. In fact,-"

"Look, I don't care about that anymore, just don't get shot, the last thing I need is another person dying under my watch after having already lost my entire team. Do you understand me? You will not die under my watch, and in order for that to happen you must listen to me at all times. Do you understand me? I need a sir yes sir if you do."

The elegant Digimon forced herself to go out of character as she replied to him with the short phrase. Her nerves were getting to her, it was a new world and she was cut off from the digital world as far as she could tell. She was really unsure if she was immortal anymore and even if she was she would still rather not feel the pain of having her brains blown out or her arm smashed or something.

The two continued to walk through the dark forest until the village finally came into view.

Jon grabbed his weapon from the sling on his back and carried it so that he could fire at a moment's notice. As the two got ever so close to the village, Jon's marching pace turned into a slow and rather cautious walk as he began to search for signs of the enemy. Renamon tried to keep her usual apathetic face but it was clear that she too was ever so nervous and wary of the destroyed village. Her eyes would occasionally dart left and right in search of an enemy that for now was not there.

As the two entered the village, unbeknownst to them there was a tiny little field camera that was zooming in on the two from a corner at the entrance. The peculiar little camera made little inaudible noises as its lens zoomed in and the little communication device on its back began relaying information to the PLA HQ.

**PLA HQ, Chang'an AO, 7:30 AM...**

"Contact! It's coming from the north end of the village. We've got one American soldier and some sort of fox thing walking next to him, it's yellow and has purple sleeves with the yin yang symbol on each of them!"

The now stoic colonel remained calm as he stayed in his "game on" mentality. He observed the camera for a few seconds until he realized what he wanted to do.

"Send squad 01 to meet the two head on. Then send squad 02 to flank the two from the left while squad 03 covers the entrance they came from. There will be no victory for the American and his fox this time. Only death, do not capture the fox either, it is clearly sympathetic to the Americans, kill it on sight."

The Chinese soldier gave a salute as he walked over to the temporary barracks and prepped the three squads on what they were about to do.

**Chang'an AO, 8 AM...**

The rather wary duo continued their slow journey through the village as they crossed the destroyed huts that littered the AO. For over an hour now the two hadn't spoken a single word as they trekked through the unkown landscape in a painfully sluggish manner. Just as they passed what appeared to be a local hospital, they began to hear footsteps and immediately Jon held up his hand, ordering the two to stop. He motioned quickly for her to get out of sight as he sprinted into the hospital. The fox merely jumped away from the place as Jon internally sighed in frustration at her ability to do that.

Jon waited behind a metal counter (the modern hospital seemed way out of place to him, but he simply figured that it was a sort of relief hospital set up by the government) as he tuned in his audio enhancer to listen to the footsteps.

_I've counted five steps in total coming from my nine. Shit I'm a little outnumbered here, that bitch just left me here too, fucking good for nothing rat. This isn't going to be easy by any means... _

The footsteps of the enemy suddenly stopped and for a second Jon couldn't hear a single thing despite his audio enhancer being on. Immediately he could tell something was off and he kept his aim at the front door, his Garand loaded with a heavy 40 round magazine.

Suddenly, a little object rolled in and broke the silence as it bounced on the floor a couple times.

_SHIT!_ Was all he could think to himself as he ducked down and fiddled with his audio enhancer in vain. The flash bang went off as the amplified noise from the bang made his ears shake in pain. He gathered all the strength within him and, despite the pain, brought his head up from the counter. He once again took aim at the doorway and shot at the incoming PLA soldiers.

The hyper-sonic bullets zoomed through the air before slamming into the first two unlucky PLA soldiers who entered the door, forcing the rest of the enemy squad to stay outside for fear of getting shot.

"COME AND GET SOME YOU SHITTY LITTLE FUCKS!" Jon screamed at them as he pulled the trigger a few more times, supersonic bullets ripping apart the air while exiting the hospital, leaving a reminder to the rest of the PLA about what awaited them should they enter the abandoned hospital.

The soldiers quickly convened before finally coming to a unanimous agreement about how they would flush the operative out. The squad leader radioed in the PLA HQ before shouting for a few seconds. He then hung up the radio and ordered his team to create an armed perimeter around the hospital, effectively trapping the operative within.

Jon waited. He knew that he had nowhere to go so he simply kept his finger on the trigger and his aim on the entrance.

**Abandoned hospital, Chang'an AO, 9 AM...**

The operative still waited with his aim on the entrance. It had been little over an hour now if he remembered correctly, and the PLA had yet to make their move. The soldier was ready for anything they could throw at him as he checked his magazine once more. He took note that he had 32 rounds in the current magazine while he had about 120 rounds worth of reload-able ammunition.

Jon once again heard the foreign language of Chinese being spoken as the PLA convened outside his miniature fortress. He thought grimly to himself about what they had planned for him.

Two minutes passed after the talking had stopped and he noticed a shadow by the entrance, a soldier was right at the door. His finger hovered dangerously close to the trigger at this point as he waited for someone to try and breach the building.

For the second time that day he heard a little grenade bounce on the floor. Again he brought his head down, but this time he didn't hear a bang. Instantly, he got up and brought his gun to bare when he noticed a gas that was rapidly leaking from the grenade. It was a whitish sort of gas that quickly consumed the clean air around it as it made a cloud that grew bigger and bigger.

The cloud encroached upon Jon's position at a rapid pace as he became frantic while searching for some sort of filter. His search was fruitless and the gas hit him. He inhaled it and the gas immediately rushed inside his body, filling his lungs and lingering in his nose.

At that moment, his mouth and nose began to burn intensely as his eyes reddened with tears. His throat became irritated and a minute later it too started to burn intensely. Jon went into a coughing fit as his body searched desperately for clean air but to no avail. The white gas had filled the entire room and refused to settle as it filled every single corner.

It was one of the most painful experiences Jon ever had in his life. His insides screamed in pain as the gas continuously exited and entered his respiratory system. His red eyes remained almost constantly closed at this point.

The soldiers outside laughed among themselves as they waited for the operative to surrender to them.

Jon refused to give in, his nationalism won out against his primal instinct to make the pain stop. His eyes watered as the 30 year old man began to cry for the first time in years. Gas infused salty tears ran down the cheeks of his red face and served only to seep into his mouth and cause more pain for the suffering soldier. He refused to give in though.

He was a man who had everything taken away from him. His friends were gone, his family was non-existent, and his generals probably marked him as MIA by now. But goddamn did he have his country to live for. He had to be strong, if not for his family, his dead friends, or even his generals, then for his country.

Two hours had passed as the tear gas began to settle down and his lungs were given a short reprieve from the constant pain. His pain however, was just beginning. The strong soldier held out against the enemy, but the enemy wasn't anywhere close to being finished with him.

For the third time that day a grenade rolled into the hospital. A small sound left it after 3 seconds and this time the room began to fill up with a brown gas.

He crawled to the corner of the hospital lobby and cried as he dug his face into his arms while his gun rested by his side. The brown gas, much like the tear gas, crept upon him until he finally felt the gas caress his face. It gently massaged the entirety of his exposed forehead until it finally began to nudge itself into his lower face which was dug deep into his arms. He held his breath for a couple seconds as he cried, knowing that once he sucked in air he would once again feel the pains of torture.

He held his breath for a while, his red face even turned bluish for a second until finally he gave in and took his first breath. The gentle yet sinister gas seeped into his airways as he began to feel the effects of the chemical.

His body began to stir slightly without him noticing. It was a nerve agent. This was the end, he was going to die like a rodent by an internationally outlawed substance as he served his country dutifully, refusing to give up. The crying soldier continued to sob as he felt the agent beginning to work on him. Within a couple minutes he would begin to convulse as if he was having a seizure. Within a dozen minutes he would begin to lose control of his muscles that made him breathe. In only fifteen minutes, he would finally die, unable to control the simplest of bodily functions as his organs at that time would shut down.

It was then that he saw it, or rather, him.

A PLA soldier stood in front of him, an AK in his hands as he looked almost angrily towards Jon. His dark olive uniform spoke of nothing but malice to Jon as it seemed to suck the life out of the air around it just as the gas sucked the life out of Jon. The name tag on his uniform was in a language Jon couldn't understand. Such was his fate, to die to a man whose name he could not even know.

Jon glared at the man through teary eyes as he refused to accept his fate, his arms ever so weakly inched towards his gun. The elongated object just barely out of reach as it rested merely a foot from his weak body.

The PLA soldier stepped in front of Jon and looked down upon him in seeming disgust. The teary eyed soldier had his gun in his arms but was too weak to lift it; he was a pitiful mess who would die in only a dozen minutes if he kept being exposed to the nerve agent.

That's when the PLA soldier dissolved, only to leave a slender fox in its place. The fox, with a magnificent sweep of its arms, made an astonishing gust of wind that all but threw the gas out of the building.

She stood above Jon as he looked up at her weakly, his red face stricken with tears and his breathing still labored. She was his angel, his guardian sent from heaven, sworn to protect him from all the perils that stood in his path on this forsaken planet. His eyes somehow managed to conjure even more tears as he stared at the fox in front of him, his savior.

With a small grunt the elegant, slender fox picked him up and cradled him in her arms. The experienced and deadly soldier lay within her arms like a baby, unable to grasp at the world around him. The previous hours of torture still having had a profound effect on his mental state.

He was once again a broken down man, unable to bare the pains of reality and war, his face was still red and his skin began to peel slightly due to the sheer amount of tears that dried it.

"Do not worry young soldier, I will bring you back home."

The fox walked outside the building and Jon saw it. There was nothing but flayed corpses strewn across the entrance of the hospital, some men were so brutally murdered that their faces weren't even recognizable as being that of a human's.

Renamon walked into that dark foreboding forest with the soldier in her arms, his eyes were closed and he had passed out at this point. When she reached the HUMVEE she laid him down on the ground next to one of the wheels. The air was cold. She sat down next to him and covered his midsection with her tail as the soldier slept as comfortably as he possibly could.

**Hey Everybody it's Tychusfindlay919! Wow, so that was a lot of progression in one chapter. I'm sorry if anyone wanted me to explain more about how Renamon got to this world but I didn't want that to be an important part of the story. The focus is more on the here and now, she's in a new world and it's unsure if she can really get back (goddamn no spoiler alerts okay Tychusfindlay919?!).**

**Like always, I will vigorously re-read this chapter in search of mistakes. Please leave a review and likes and favorites are always welcome.**

**Word of the chapter = naiveté**

**naiveté = Inexperienced, lacking wisdom in a certain thing, think naive.**

**military stuff = nine (o'clock)**

**nine = Based on the position of the nine on a clock, which is to the left, or west, of the center (the center is you).**

**More is to come...**


	6. Chapter 6

**Dark, foreboding forest...**

_COUGH!_

Browning felt as if he was hacking up his insides as he coughed. The nerve agent along with the irritation from the tear gas had given his insides hell, although most of the pain was gone. Renamon was sitting by his side, watching him over as he recovered from the experience.

"I should thank you for saving me back there. Any longer and I probably would have been a spaz for the rest of my life, or even dead." Jon spoke in a rather serious, albeit weak, voice.

"There is no need to thank me, I was merely returning the favors you had given me the past few days. Although I would be in my right mind to admonish you about your rash behavior. You really need to slow down with this mission of yours; one day they might kill you before I can get there and then your blood will be on my hands. I'll be all alone in this world again."

Jon's face turned grim as she finished talking. Being alone was not a new experience for him.

_Hell, all it took was one day for me to just break down..._

Having known the horrors of solitude, Jon promised himself to stay alive and to keep Renamon alive. If not for his own sake, then for hers.

"Yeah, I should slow down with this operation... That was a close call back there. I just want to be as expedient as possible. I want to go back to base, he'll, I want to go back home, to the states. I'm tired of this, I've done my duty to my country. I've served for a good half a decade now, fighting in this war for nearly two years."

Renamon's face turned sour as she heard the familiar word that detailed the most peculiar concept, war. It baffled her, how millions upon millions of people can suddenly wage a huge fight against another group of people numbering in the millions.

"How did this war start? Why are you fighting these people. What did they do that would make your country go into a violent frenzy such as this?"

Jon's face managed to darken even more than it already was as the memories surfaced.

**2 years ago, New York Stock Exchange...**

"That's odd..." An economist by the name of jack Carlton said to himself as he reviewed the valuation of a Fortune 500 company.

The company was making profits while gaining only minimal amounts of debt. Efficiency was high and the company was more or less kicking ass and taking numbers. However, despite that, the company's valuation continued to make a slight decline. It's stock had gone from 250 dollars a share to 249.50 dollars, a rather meaningless change at first.

An hour later the shares dropped even further to 248.25 dollars.

"What the hell..." The economist exited his tab on that company and then searched up another company within the Fortune 500, GE. A rather robust and giant company, it's stock generally was stable and stayed high. He pulled out the company's approximate valuation and once again noticed that it was slightly dropping in value. The company's stock went from around 278 dollars a share about a couple hours ago to 275 dollars a share despite the company doing relatively well.

"Something here isn't right, and if it doesn't get fixed, people are going to panic." The economist texted his friends to see if they saw what was going on.

Almost immediately his phone chirped as dozens of texts flooded his phone, confirming his fear. The shares of GE, the current company he had on the computer, fell down another 3 dollars in just an hour. The stock market was beginning to spiral down at a significant pace.

Suddenly, the values plummeted. Companies from the S and P and the DOW Jones tanked in mere hours as the valuations of all the companies continued to plummet. There was chaos in the NY stock exchange as business people ran to nearby terminals in order to ensure that their stocks were being sold off before they lost anymore money. The panic was incurable; as the stock holders sold out their shares, the prices continued to plummet.

**The next day...**

The DOW Jones in a single day fell by over twenty percent as chaos erupted throughout the world. People began rioting in the streets of New York and throughout Europe as everyone was scared but moreso confused as to how the assets of the companies plummeted so fast and without reason.

In just a single day, investors from the East to the West of the Earth, lost trillions of dollars.

**White house, 1 week later...**

American president Richard Armstrong sat in his chair as he prepared himself to address the country on TV. The camera turned on as the camera crew signaled him that he was now live and broadcasting to the entirety of the United States.

"Hello my fellow Americans, this is your president Richard Armstrong. As you all know, around a week ago at this time, the stock market suddenly crashed and the U.S. plunged into a deep recession with the rest of the world following suit. I am here to announce to you today that we have traced this problem to its roots with the help of an advanced team of economists, Internet surveillance technicians from the NSA and CIA, and even operators from within the military. As of today, we know this to be true, that civilian hackers sponsored by the fascist government of the people's democratic Republic of North Korea and the communist government of the People's Republic of China, effectively hacked into numerous servers throughout the virtual stock exchange world. Once they successfully hacked into said servers, they altered the valuation of American and European companies, and effectively plunged the world, even their own nations to a slighter extent, into a horrendous recession. With approval from congress, we the United States, have declared war on North Korea and are in negotiations with China to reverse this heinous crime. That is all for now, I promise you, the Amrican people, that we will be compensated in full and that this will never happen again."

The president sighed to himself as the camera turned off.

"Mr. President, the meeting in the situation room is beginning now. Please come with me."

The president followed his body guard as he left the Oval Office and took an elevator down into the basement of the white house where the situation room was located. Before entering, he turned off his cell phone and deposited it into a bin.

As he stepped into the room everyone looked up at him as he walked slowly towards his seat and sat down.

The Joint chief of staffs was the first man to speak.

"Mr. President, what occurred a week ago is a deliberate act of war against the not only the United States, but the entire West. These hackers were state sponsored terrorists and they are responsible for having inflicted on the U.S. and Europe over trillions of dollars in damages. I believe it is time that we wage war on Vhina as well, North Korea is just a tiny ant bound to be crushed under our might in about a month. China however, isn't so small, and they've made it clear that they aren't willing to negotiate."

Once the joint chief of staffs finished speaking the Secretary of State was the second to talk.

"We cannot do this mr. President. China is not some random pushover that we can just declare war on. They are a nuclear state and have at least 200 long range ICBMs under their command. Any strike from us will only result in a mutually assured destruction."

The president thought for a few seconds as he considered what little options he had.

"Hand me the nuclear football."

"You cannot be serious sir! What the hell are you doing!"

"What should have happened to the North Koreans a long time ago. Phone the Chinse that we aren't launching against them, but rather, the Koreans. They'll be pissed at the loss of their ally but they're not going to fight us over those batshit insane Korean fucks."

The president took hold of the black suitcase as he opened it and immediately began inputting codes into the console. After a minute he closed the console and immediately the entire group looked at a TV monitor that showed a satellite image of Earth. The satellite zoomed in on the Far East as the group waited in anticipation.

It was only a few minutes later when immediately, the Korean peninsula lit up as North Korea, a small patch of green and brown, turned into nothing but a destructive orange. Mere minutes later, all of North Korea was enshrouded in clouds, the nation was effectively wiped off the face of the Earth.

Only a few minutes later a warning signaled as dozens of rockets shot up from the Chinese mainland.

"It's nuclear retaliation! We're all going to die!" The secretary of state screamedas she shoved her face into her arms. The president and the military generals however, sat in silence as they watched the 123 launched ICBMs head toward the American mainland, currently they were deep in space.

"And so sir, the moment of truth..." The joint chief of staffs said silently.

Little flare like lights lit up in the US as well as Europe. The tiny flares traveled in the opposite direction the Chinese ICMBs were travelling until finally the flares collided with them. Massive shockwaves reverberated throughout space as fireballs shined. For a split second before instantly vanishing due to the lack of oxygen needed to sustain the fire.

The image shook violently as the satellite was rocked by the shockwaves. However, it soon stopped and the foo grew eerily silent. The never before tested integrated Euro-American missile defense system worked. China had expended its entire nuclear arsenal only for it to be wasted in space, hardly even able to affect the Earth that much except for a few particularly strong blasts that EMPed some of the satellites in orbit.

"What now sir? Do we nuke China?"

"We can't, the Chinese are too close to the Russians. The Russians won't allow it. Our defense system is probably exhausted, and even if it were at full capacity I highly doubt that it would be good enough to stop the much larger Russian arsenal. An arsenal easily over two times the size of the now non-existent Chinese arsenal. We're going to have to declare a conventional war, Russia lost some serious cash due to those hackers, so they'll be on our side if anything. It's time to fight back against the perpetrators of this despicable crime. Change the alert status to DEFCON 1 and mobilize all armed forces and the reserves, we're about to rewrite history..."


	7. Chapter 7

**?, Chang'An AO, one day later...**

Browning slowly opened his eyes. His vision, although initially blurry, began to clear up as he started to take in his surroundings. It was dark.

The room he was in was nearly pitch black as he tried to find anything resembling a ceiling or a wall. His body was constrained in a rather primitive "chained to the wall" set-up, disallowing any sort of movement from him except for a step or two from the wall that he was chained to. His feet were aching, and his wrists were beginning to hurt as the rough chains kept rubbing up against them.

_Where the fuck is this? Where the fuck am I? Where the fuck is Renamon?! _Jon thought to himself as he began to panic slightly. He didn't have a single clue where he was and the fact that he was chained up like a dog told him that where ever he was, he was obviously not being kept as a guest.

The lights in the room lit up rather slowly. They were dim, but at least now Browning was able to see what else was in the room. There was a chair and then all around him were just concrete walls, almost as if it were an interrogation room. The room obviously wasn't maintained well. The concrete walls had numerous cracks on them and the roof looked as if it were about to give in at any moment.

His senses keen, Browning could faintly hear some rather incoherent speech coming from an old and very rusted metal door to his left. It wasn't English. He knew exactly what kind of position he was in now. He was a POW at the hands of (probably) that enemy platoon that he was fighting only a couple days ago.

"Shit, how the fuck did they get me? How the hell did they know where I was?" Small droplets of sweat began to form on his brow as he pulled on the chains slightly, hoping to weaken them and eventually break free. The chains however, were rooted to the wall by two metal plates. Whoever designed the thing was _clearly _a **dumbass**, because the plates were screwed into the wall and in plain sight. Unfortunately for him, he didn't have a screwdriver so that fact was meaningless.

The Scout looked around for something to get a hold of but he couldn't find a single thing except for a small rock that was on the other side of the room. It was meaningless, he wasn't escaping anytime soon.

Still he pulled on the chains, his human instinct to become free over-rode his logical mind as he pulled and pulled to no avail.

_Creak..._ the door opened as a rather aged Chinese man stepped in. His face had many wrinkles and his eyes were squinted to the point where it looked as if he had them closed. He wore an officer's cap that was rather old-fashioned and had a uniform that was adorned with multiple different badges and rewards. _Probably the platoon's CO or something,_ Jon thought to himself as he looked at the seemingly authoritative newcomer with disgust.

"It's your lucky day, we don't normally keep prisoners of war, especially American dogs like you. Generally we just have you... "put down like dogs" as you Americans say.

"Put down like **A** dog you dumbass. The difference is that we Americans actually know a little about simple grammar unlike you, even if English isn't your first language."

The Colonel punched him in his undefended gut as a frown appeared on his face. Jon coughed uncontrollably for a few seconds as the air left him.

"I don't really think you are in position to be making joke like that silly American. Are you not the one who is chained up to wall like dog? If I wanted to, I could do anything to you. I could beat the shit out you or something even more depraved like have my men come in and... 'teach you a lesson.' I have all the power here, you have nothing. There is nothing you can do to me. But, I'm feeling generous today okay? You should feel lucky, I am usually not generous person willing to give out anything. Also, everything in this world has a price. I will let you free, absolutely free. In fact, I may even free weird fox. And so, I will offer you something you may not want to refuse..."

"You're a moron okay? So let me tell you something first. I'm a nationalist, and you won't get shit from me, so you might as well put the bullet in my head now you stupid little piece of shit."

Just a second later, Browning was staring down the barrel of an elegant Chinese pistol. It was a sleek pistol that spoke volumes of fine crafting. It was all gray except for the grip which had a beautiful wooden laminate. Its frame was angular, almost like something you would see from the Germans. The menacing hole that was the barrel was dark, concealing the killer bullet within that, if activated, would end Browning's rather short-lived life.

"Is that so American? Neverless, we won't kill you, we could use you for things later on. Will see you later American, hopefully you will change your mind." The older man left with a smile.

Browning's head hang low as reality slowly began to set in. His thoughts immediately turned to Renamon.

_Shit I hope she's alright. If she goes that will be the end of me, I'll have no one..._

Two hours later, the door opened again and in came a much younger looking soldier with a plate of food. He walked up to Jon and placed the plate of food on the floor besides his feet. He looked at the scout briefly, his face seemingly emotionless (or perhaps Browning was simply oblivious to the facial features of Asian people since he grow up in the deep south and never really encountered someone of Asian descent).

"American, I do not want to die."

"Nor do I, but I don't think I have much of a choice if my back-up doesn't come in time. I still have so what of a chance though. As for you? You're done. The Army will come rolling in here any day, and once that happens, this small village will be over-run and you'll all be shot. It's going to be glorious.." Jon smiled to himself as the thought of the PLA being massacred brought a small smile to his face.

The young soldier looked around before leaning in towards Browning's face. His mouth was just inches away from his hear as he whispered quietly to Jon... a proposal.

"Maybe we can do something? I can get you out of here and we can escape this. But you have to promise to keep me alive okay?"

Browning looked at him wearily, it sounded almost too good to be true. It sounded like a trap, and Browning was fucking tired of traps.

"You're full of shit, spare me the rest of the BS and just get the hell out of here. I don't have time to be talking to stupid little kids like you who have stars in their eyes. Go back toy our CO and be a good little slave okay?"

"I don't like him American! I don't want to die, I swear! I can get you out of here! I don't want to die by commander and I don't want to die by Americans! I just don't want to die! I'm too young!"

"Be here by 1 AM in the morning and no later, then I might consider your proposal."

The young soldier smiled as he began to walk away until Browning shouted at him, "Wait!"

"How is Ren-, how is the yellow fox creature doing? Is she okay?"

"She is good, the big leader is thinking of testing fox for certain things tomorrow."

_Those bastards aren't going to lay a fucking finger on her, not a single fucking finger... So help me God, if they do anything to her, I will unleash hell upon them. I will unleash all of hell, even if it means that I will die._

"Thanks, remember to come here by 1 AM okay?"

The PLA soldier nodded as he left the dilapidated cell room. It was a promise for the young soldier. The only question now is if Browning was going to keep it.

**1 AM the next day, Chang'An AO, ?...**

The scout awoke as the rusted metal door squeaked open slowly and rather painfully. The young soldier he met earlier walked in with a shiny pair of keys in his hands.

In a second Browning was free, he examined his wrists and noted that after just one day they were dark red and hurting from all the rubbing with the chains. He looked on towards the exit, but he couldn't see anything from the lack of light.

"Thanks for helping me out. First, we have to save the yellow fox, she's an important figure to me and the rest of the Americans; she's a prototype of sorts."

The Chinese soldier stayed silent but nonetheless began to slowly walk towards the exit until he was out of sight. Jon followed him.

The two soldiers stealthily crawled their way throughout the entire compound as they searched for Renamon's holding cell. It wasn't until after 45 minutes of crawling did they finally find the room in which she was being held captive. However, unlike Browning's holding cell, Renamon's cell had a one-way mirror.

Her fur was slightly dirty and, like Browning, was chained to the wall. She was sleeping, but Browning could tell that life for her here had been rough since day 1. There was dried blood on her knees as well her cheeks and in some areas her fur was darkened to the point of almost being black.

Browning slowly opened the cell door as he crept inside. He slithered slowly towards Renamon's sleeping form before asking the Chinese soldier for the key.

The Chinese soldier complied and within seconds Renamon was freed and awakened. She looked at Browning as her face lit up.

"Let's get the fuck out of here and don't look back. Just follow me okay?" She nodded as the trio began to walk around the compound slowly.

"First order of business, kill the commander of the platoon. Second order of business, finish off the remaining troops. You'll be the only one to survive okay? You should feel lucky about that."

"But, what if the other soldiers want to come with us?" The young PLA soldier asked him, his eyes beginning to tear up in the dark.

"Too bad, I'm not bringing back a whole platoon. Besides, if I did, the Army would order many of them to be shot. This is total war, don't forget how this all happened you hear? Like I said before, just be glad that I'm even allowing you to come with me."

**2 AM, Chang'An AO, ?...**

It was a rather small and spartan room. There was a little old radio on the far side of the room from the door that was still on as Anti-American propaganda spewed from it at a low volume. The walls were a colorless white with many cracks in them. The corners had dust webs and insects regularly crawled throughout dusty, brown floor and even hopped into the bed. In the middle of the room was a small dirty mattress. The mattress as well as the covers above were both colored a rather beautiful, lush red. If one really thought about it, the bed seemed rather out of place given its pristine condition and beautiful red.

What seemed even more out of place however was the man sleeping in that mattress.

He was wearing comfortable looking pajamas as his closed eyes faced towards the dilapidated ceiling. Next to the man was a rather ornate uniform decorated with multiple badges and the flag of China. The most disturbing part about this whole scene... was that the man's face was bloodied and a hole had been drilled straight through his forehead.

**3 AM, Dark foreboding forest...**

The trio made its way to the HUMVEE in a rather lethargic way since they were all tired. Renamon was leaning on Browning's shoulder, because her knees were in pain, disallowing any sort of movement.

Renamon looked at Jon as she gave a faint smile. "Thank you for saving me back there in my time of need. I have not a single idea what would have happened if I had stayed there for even just one more day."

Jon returned the smile. "Don't worry about it, it's my duty as an American soldier to serve the American people as well as their allies, and for all I know, you're an ally of America."

They finally made it to the truck and sat down besides the destroyed vehicle. Jon looked inquisitively at the PLA soldier who had truly rescued all of them. So many questions floated around in his mind as he tried to understand the Chinese soldier. _Why did he save us? He said it was because he was scared. But why was he scared? Does he know China is losing the war? Was his commander good? What are the Chinese planning? Too many questions to think about... I need to find out now, there's no time wait, this guy needs to spill the beans completely._

"Hey you, PLA soldier."

The young man raised his head and looked at Jon with a quizzical look.

"What's your name?"

"My name is... Zhang Wei."

"What's your rank?"

"I am... What Americans would consider... Uh... The low guys, the ones that just joined and fight in front lines."

"That'd most likely be a private or private first class or something. Anyways, what do you plan on doing when we get back to the camp?"

The former PLA soldier shrugged. In fact, the soldier was scared, he had no clue what was going to happen to him. For all he cared, this all could have been in vain. It's all dependent upon how the American forces take him in, if they take him in.

"It's up to you Americans... Tell me, would you help me? Can I de-depend on you to help me if I get in trouble? I don't want to die, I just want to go back to my farm and live with my family. I don't want to fight Americans and I don't want to fight my own people, I just want to live in peace on a little farm."

"Yeah I'll help ya. Don't worry bud, you're in good hands. I'll take care of you. That's a fact."

The young soldier smiled at Jon and Renamon as they all sat in silence. He was a happy youngling now and for all he knew, he made a couple of friends. He lied down and closed his eyes. A future filled with hope took over his imagination as he thought of the rice patties, his family, his friends, and his future wife, however she would look like. His life was in good hands, and soon, he'll be able to return to a normal life far from the political influence of any government.

Jon put out the little fire that illuminated their little camping spot besides the truck. He sat next to Renamon as he soother her anxiety by caressing her fur. It was soft, like the fur of a baby dog or fox. He continued to stroke her fur as he thought about his future and more importantly, her future. The PLA soldier was worried about his possibly being rejected by the boys back at base, a rather useless worry Browning chuckled to himself. His face turned more serious when he thought about what would happen when he brought back Renamon on top of having lost every other soldier within the fireteam. He knew for a fact that they'd inquire as to how his teammates all died, and he'd have to tell them that he was careless. But more importantly, how would they take in Renamon? What if they subjected her to the same standards that the PLA had subjected her to? What if she was ripped apart from his side and taken away to some sort of zoo or research laboratory?

There were dozens of possible outcomes that Browning could think of. Every one of them had a significant downside except for one. They simply accept her. He doubted that would ever be the case. They would probably put her in some sort of research laboratory; it scared him. She was all he had left at this point, and if she left him for whatever reason then he'd be nothing but a lonely man without any friends share his burdens with. He couldn't bare the thought any longer as he tried to focus on the task at hand.

He had to find a way to get back to base after he completed his mission. Obviously though, his first goal would be to finally complete the mission his team was given.

Picking up his MK1 Garand, he loaded a clip into the gun and pushed back the bolt, ensuring that it was loaded and ready to fire. He walked over to the sleeping form of the PLA soldier, the man who had saved him.

His face was serene. Like the Buddha, it portrayed a sort of happiness that could only be described as eternal. Never before had Jon himself smiled in such a way. His life had been nothing but pain all the way up until now. This man however, was a different case. His mouth was curved into a grand smile as he slept quietly on the cold forest floor. His cheeks were rather plump and his complexion was of a light brown. Behind that smile Jon could see everything. He could see the young soldier's ambitions to live in solitude. He could see the young soldier's longing for his home and family. For a second, he really did see **_everything_**. And for the next second, he could see the completion of his mission as the smoke rose from the barrel of his gun. A small _thud_ sound had resonated throughout the forest.

The young Chinese soldier's face still looked serene despite the gaping hole in his forehead. It irked Browning. It irked him deeply. For a moment, he even regretted what he had done. For a moment...

He dragged the dead body 100 meters away from the HUMVEE camp site in a random direction and buried it.

"Thanks for all the help. Renamon is truly grateful for it."

With that he left the impromptu grave, however, not before he had spat on it.

He dragged his body towards the HUMVEE before finally laying down to sleep. His read was resting on his arms as he shivered the entire time before he finally went to sleep. It wasn't cold that night.

**It wasn't cold that night at all...**

**More to come...**


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's pre-warning = This is where the fanfiction turns M, I won't spoil anything more than that. This warning is purely for those who wish to know what to expect from here on out. Remember, I am making this fanfiction as professionaly as possible, so please read this chapter instead of stopping here because of this warning. If you are someone who cannot handle mature subjects, then feel free to disregard that and leave this fanfiction.**

**Dark, foreboding forest...**

Dark and ominous trees were ubiquitous. The forest roof prevented any light from touching the ground, and as such, it was seemingly pitch black within the forest. Bugs of all sorts crawled, buzzed, and pinched everything near them. On occasion, a larger animal could be seen munching on a nearby plant in the dark while a predator behind it prepares for a pounce. If only one thing remained constant in this forest... it would be that every creature was a recluse.

_Crunch, crunch, crunch_

The seemingly out-of-place duo walked in the dark forest side by side. It had been two days in the forest since Browning mercilessly put the defective PLA soldier to rest. They had just ran out of food and water as the last MRE was eaten a couple of hours ago. Renamon was exhausted and scared that the forest would be their grave if they couldn't find a way out.

"Do you even know where we are going?"

"I have a clue," Browning said slightly annoyed. Her lack of faith in him seemed to aggravate him rather quickly. They were a team now. He depended on her and she depended on him, and if they began doubting each other on certain things then the relationship would fall apart.

"Besides, where we're going is the least of my concerns. You saw and even felt how those PLA soldiers treated you during our captivity. I have no clue how the boys back at base will treat you. Nothing in this world has ever seen the likes of you, and we don't have a good track record for treating things that bring about our curiosity with respect..."

Renamon tilted her head to the side for a second as she pondered about what Browning said. It was true that the PLA had treated her terribly. Who knows what would have happened if she wasn't rescued earlier. Would the Americans treat her similarly? Why would they treat her the same way the PLA treated her? What Browning told her didn't ease her anxiety at all. It only made it worse. Renamon was caught between a rock and a hard place as multiple different scenarios ran through her head. Were humans really as unreliable as Browning stated them to be? If they were, then why was she so close to Browning? What about him made her gravitate towards him in such a way that she would follow him to her possible torture? The questions running through her head annoyed her. The answers that eluded her served to deepen her anxiety.

**Outskirts of the United States Cavalry Scouts Forward Operating Base, one week later...**

The malnourished duo lumbered slowly as the American Operating Base came into view. Browning was so weak that he didn't carry his heavy bag anymore and simply began dragging it across the ground. Renamon's once rather beautiful, curvaceous, and slender form was now becoming sickeningly thin. As she lumbered alongside Browning, her head wasn't held high as usual, and her tail was deflated. Her fur coat was dirtied to the point of not even being yellow and white anymore, just brown.

Browning scratched his side. Rashes formed all over his body as his clothes rubbed against him and bugs found their way onto his skin. The bugs, whenever he could catch them, served as a delightful snack that he happily split in half with Renamon.

"We finally made it!" Browning proclaimed.

**United States Cavalry Scouts Forward Operating Base, 3 hours later...**

Browning pulled the warm, inviting covers towards him as the now First Sergeant Bradley stood over him with worried eyes. On the bed adjacent to Browning was Renamon. She was asleep.

"How are you feeling Jon?"

"Feelin' fine. I'm a little depressed. That's all."

Bradley looked towards Renamon for a couple seconds before he turned back to Browning.

"Care to explain that?"

"When my team was taken out and I was left injured, she saved me. I owe my life to that woman."

Bradley was taken aback when he heard "she" and "woman." He looked at the fox once again, after she was cleaned and her fur returned to being a luscious yellow and white he surmised that she did have rather feminine features. He looked back at Browning with a slight frown once again.

"You said your team was taken out by an IED?"

Browning breathed deeply as he recalled the experience.

**Flashback, narrated by Jon Browning...**

"It all started when we first rolled into the AO, the place was fucking abandoned and we didn't know what to do."

_Browning looked around him as the squad rolled into the desolate village..._

"It was fucking creepy ya know? Have you ever seen a ghost town? On this planet of 9 billion people, I didn't even think such a thing was fucking possible..."

_Browning heard the cocking of the automatic 50mm above him. He wasn't the only one on edge in this village..._

"We all had fucking goose bumps, we rolled in cautiously. Looking back on the whole thing, we should have just bombed the fucking village and call it a day."

_The woman's cry made Browning shiver..._

"We heard a woman cry in pain. That was the beginning of the end sir, it really was."

_The squad entered the side of the hut as the water breaching device exploded. On the ground was a woman half covered by a rug..._

"It was the creepiest fucking thing we saw. The entire hut was empty. Neither a soul nor anything really was in there. Nothing except a woman half covered by a red rug was in that hut."

_The other squad-mates were picking up the rug. Jon saw a little red flash under the woman as something went off. He left the hut after telling them to tend her._

"I told them I was going to go outside to make sure that we weren't ambushed. That was the end of the end.

_Jon preemptively covered his face and turned around right before the hut blew up. Gore and debris flew all around him as he was pushed by the blast and hit the fence head-on..._

"When I woke up, they were all gone. That was it, I never saw them again. I didn't even see a body part, everything was just... Vaporized..."

**United States Cavalry Scouts Forward Operating base...**

Bradley looked upon Browning with pity, his long-time friend looked old and like shit. Browning wasn't even forty years old and already his hair was beginning to gray and his worn face only made things worse. He sighed to himself as he peered into the depths of Browning's sorrowful eyes.

"Normally she would have to be relocated somewhere considered safe since she's a non-combatant/unlawful combatant, but I'm going to let her stay and I won't say anything to the higher-ups about her. I know she saved your life, and because of that, she's one of us. If she doesn't want to go anywhere then that's fine by me."

Browning smiled at his CO as the older man started walking out of the tent.

"Oh, and Browning."

"Yeah?"

"Rest well, you'll need it for later on in this war."

"I think I'm going to be taking 20 days of leave out of my 50 days."

"I'll see you then. I hope you get better for when you come back Browning. We need you here."

"I'll be back sir, and when I come back I swear I'll be ready to go at a moment's notice."

The older soldier smiled softly at Browning before leaving the tent. Renamon and Browning were left alone as the moon dominated the night sky. It was midnight, and everyone was going to sleep except for the guards on night-patrol around the camp.

Browning got up from his bed and walked over to the sleeping form of Renamon.

He couldn't believe that Bradley allowed her to stay there at the base. That man had an incredible heart, and one Browning wished he could gain. He looked over the serene fox, her slender face shone radiantly in the dark as the little purple marks under her closed eyes only served to accentuate the rest of her beautiful face. Her fur was pristine as always, and as he softly caressed it with his hands it easily gave way under the gentle force of his hands. A couple of tears formed in his eyes as he continued to caress her. She was the most beautiful thing to have ever graced this planet. Her radiance lit up the dark world that always tried to consume Browning at every turn.

He leaned in towards Renamon as he gave a light kiss on her nose. It was soft and wet and sent shivers down his spine when his lips grazed it. He walked back towards his bed as he reviewed the past two weeks of his life. The world really was against him, and it got the point that he even considered suicide. The only reason he never killed himself was because of that fateful encounter with Renamon right after he crashed his HUMVEE into the rock. She was so blunt, so abrasive, and so confused, but something about her just stuck with him. There was a certain quality about her besides her sheer beauty. Perhaps it was her innocence? Or maybe it was her intelligence?

He tossed about in his bed as his thoughts went away from Renamon and towards the other things that happened. His mind went back to the Chinese soldier that he killed on that cold, unforgiving night. His face became pale as he recalled the PLA soldier's face right before he blew it to pieces with his rifle. It was happy, carefree, innocent, and even serene. It was serene. It was the human version of Renamon's face. He thought about killing her the same way just to see if it would be the same as killing the Chinese soldier, but that thought quickly vanished as he shook his head and forced himself to go to sleep.

**?**...

Browning woke up to the sound of footsteps. He was still in his bed and the covers were still comfortably over his entire form except for his head. He looked all around him for what was making the noise. He looked over to Renamon's bed and saw that nothing was in it. He panicked. He was scared. He tried to break free from the bed but his body wouldn't move. His muscles tightened as he fought hard to make them move, but it was all to no avail as his body stayed completely still.

"Renamon... where are you? I need to see you. Did the Army take you? Did Bradley take you? Did he go back on his promise? Renamon, Renamon please where are you? I don't want to be alone. I'll do anything to find you. I'll do anything for us to stay together. Renamon, RENAMON! DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE! YOU'RE THE ONLY THING I HAVE LEFT IN THIS WORLD, DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE! I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT YOU! I CAN'T LIVE! WHERE ARE YOU?"

"Sssssssssshhhhhhh"

Browning immediately shut himself up as a bump formed in his covers. The bump slowly moved until finally it came out of the end towards Browning's face, revealing Renamon in all of her glory. Browning, with tears in his eyes, sighed in relief as he saw her.

She slowly moved up towards his face, stopping just inches from it as she stared deeply into his eyes. He stared back at her for what had felt like an hour before she finally slowly leaned in to peck him on the lips. The shivers crawled down his spine again just as it did when he kissed her while she was sleeping. He was stunned. He had no clue what to do after that as he stayed limp with her on top of him.

"Jon, I'll never leave your side. You know that. You and I will be together forever. We're destined to be together. We're friends. We're best friends. We're comrades. We're lovers."

She smiled at him as she gave him another peck before slowly descending upon him. She had once again disappeared under the covers and formed a bump. The bump moved down slowly. Jon felt her soft paws trail down his body, the sharpened claws only slightly scratching his side. The claws didn't hurt, rather, they excited him to no end. The bump continued to move down until it stopped at his groin.

"Hey Renamon? What exactly are you planning on doing?"

He received no reply as the bump lingered around his lower body. Within just a minute he felt his pants and underwear being removed as he heard a slight shriek from the Digimon under the covers. His face turned red as he realized just what she was planning on doing. Did Digimon understand the concept of sex? Did they even have sex? Weren't they from a computer? All these questions ran through his head as he tried to figure out how she even knew what she was doing.

The questions ceased as he felt the moist texture of her mouth. Nothing had ever felt so stimulating in his life. He felt all of his blood rushing down as her mouth continued to excite him between the saliva that dripped down his member to the tight, unbelievable sucking from her lips. Browning was in heaven and nothing could bring him down. He sighed softly as she continued to service him. Every now and then she would gag ever so slightly as she gained the confidence to try and take the entirety of him in her.

He convulsed soon after as he felt something so incredible pass through him. His stomach had butterflies and he felt the muscles in his member pulsate as he unloaded into Renamon's eager mouth.

"Holy fucking shit... Where the hell did you even learn that...?"

"There's more of course. This is just the beginning."

"I don't even know if I have anything left in me after that."

"You'll be surprised."

Renamon came up from under the covers. Unfortunately for Jon, this time her face was covered by the darkness of the tent, so much so that he couldn't even see the outline of her head. Her body turned around and he felt a warmth he never had before enclose upon him. It was stimulating, breathtaking, and so much more. The excitement gave him all the strength he needed to raise his arms as he wrapped them around her bobbing form. He moved his hands towards her chest area as he searched for something within that wonderful patch of fur that made a sort of cover for her chest. As he felt the fur up and down he felt them. Despite being foxlike in nature, she had well-formed breasts and his hands had found them under her fur. They were plump, squishy, and every time he grabbed onto them he could hear her yelp. It was all so stimulating.

He was lost in a world of pleasure as he was about to finish. But then Renamon suddenly stopped bobbing up and down.

"What's wrong?"

"Do you really love me?"

"Of course I do, for who you are especially. For the way you look. For the way you act. For the way you move, and definitely for the way you love me back."

There was a brief silence as Renamon randomly conjured something up from the air and fiddled with it in her hands. She brought the unknown object to her face for a brief second before bringing it down. She then turned towards him, her sweet flesh still encompassed around him. Her face was still concealed by the darkness though as Jon tried to truly see her. She stayed still for hours on end, the two simply staring at each other through the darkness. Then she spoke in a voice unlike her own.

"Is it true that you love me? Do you care for me? Do you like being with me?"

"Absolutely, there's nothing else in this entire world that I'd rather do than simply be with you."

She laughed slightly at his response as he raised an eyebrow. She wasn't being herself, he knew that for sure. And her voice had changed so suddenly. It was strange, it was random, and it was even beginning to terrify him to a slight extent. Her flesh felt cold around him and it got to the point where it gave him no pleasure anymore.

"Can you answer a question of mine? I've had a lot of questions in my mind Browning. I've had a lot of questions about this world, its plants, its inhabitants, the PLA, the U.S.A, and of course, even you. I've had so many questions that sometimes I wonder if the answers for some of them even exist."

Browning was uncomfortable, he had no idea what was going on. The most beautiful moment of his life was quickly turning dark and cold. It was unreal to him.

"Yeah, I'll answer any questions you have, just tell me."

"Why do you refuse?"

His mind came to a halt as she uttered those words in that voice.

"What am I refusing?"

"Why do you lie?"

"What am I lying about?"

"Why do you dodge?"

"What am I dodging?!"

"Those aren't answers Browning, and you know that."

Browning scoured his brain for anything that could satisfy her impromptu curiosity. He searched within himself tirelessly in hopes of giving her a pleasing answer for her ominous and vague questions. He tried and tried but he couldn't come up with anything. It was frustrating, aggravating, and he could feel her getting colder. He began to mumble to himself as he fumbled for words to say.

"What's that? You don't have the answers? Can you not satisfy my curiosity? Are you letting me down?"

"I just don't know what you want... What you're asking for... It's just... I don't know. Please, tell me, be clear, what is it that you are saying? What is it that I'm refusing? What is it that I'm denying? What is it that I'm dodging? I just don't understand."

Sweat began to drip form his head. Her flesh was stone cold and it even began to hurt him. He had no clue what was going on but he could see the outline of her head once again as she began to slowly inch closer to him. Her head got closer and closer as sweat began to pour down from his forehead. She finally came into view and he screamed.

What had once been the beautiful yellow face with purple eyelids was now the face of the Chinese soldier with a gaping bullet-hole right on his forehead. Blood was oozing out from the wound as it covered the soldier's entire face. Its blood-red eyes were open as it stared directly into Jon.

Browning continued shouting to the top of his lungs as he tried to move away. His strength had entirely left him as he was paralyzed under the abomination of what was once Renamon. He screamed and cried like a kid as the face inched closer and closer to him. It was only a couple of inches away at this point as it kept getting closer and closer and closer.

"Why do you deny? Why do you lie? Why do you dodge? Why do you **_hate_**?"

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT! GET AWAY FROM ME! GET AWAY FROM ME! I LOVE RENAMON! I DON'T LOVE WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU ARE!"

"It doesn't matter anymore." Its face inched closer and closer and it was finally just an inch away from him.

"Remember." They touched.

Jon's head flew back as it slammed into the pillow and his eyes remained open in shock. The faces of his teammates, of the PLA soldier, of Bradley, of the Chinese colonel, and even Renamon herself, flooded into his mind. The red flash from under the woman that only he had picked on flashed as bright as the sun as Browning was blinded. He tried to close his eyes but the light was still there. His body went through agonizing pain as his head felt as if it were fire.

"Remember Jon. Remember. Remember what you've done. What you are doing. And what you will do in the future."

Jon opened his eyes and the face was gone. In its place was a mirror.

In the reflection he could see himself. His face was bruised, his eyes were red, and his head was covered in blood. Behind were the bodies of his squad and the Chinese soldier and of other people he didn't even know. But on the top of the pile was Renamon's limp form covered in blood. Her face had a tormented expression on it and her limbs were mutilated. Jon brought the mirror down to look at his own hands. They were bloodied. His right hand was holding on to the grip of his MK1 Garand.

**United States Cavalry Scouts Forward Operating Base, 6 AM...**

"AAAAAAAH!" Jon arose. He looked at his own arms. He checked under the covers. He looked to his side. Renamon was still sleeping peacefully in her bed, undisturbed by anything, her face serene as ever.

**Pretty freaky stuff going on eh? Yeah. Anyways, important message, as you saw, there is definitely some M-rated stuff in this fanfiction so you should prepare yourself for the future where more of these M-rated instances show up. If you're not into that stuff then this is where we part ways D: I won't be too focused on sexual things and I will try my best to use sex as something that enhances the story and relationships within the story, and not as something for a minority of the readers to jerk off to just cuz.**

**Was anyone surprised? I try my best :D**

**Time for a little revival anyone?**

**Word of the chapter!**

**Ubiquitous = Something that is seemingly everywhere. Omnipresent is a good synonym if anyone knows that word but not this one.**

**As always, there is more to come...**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey guys! Don't worry, this story isn't dead, and it'll never die! Have fun and I hope you enjoy it!**

**United States Cavalry Scouts Forward Operating Base, 7 AM…**

Jon stood still in his bed as he glanced around the tent. Renamon's sleeping form hadn't moved an inch from when he had gone to sleep, and he could faintly hear her snoring. The tent was filled with light and he had to move his hands over his eyes since they hadn't adjusted to all the light yet. It was sunny out today, that was clear, and the rays from the sun bounced off everything and gave them a special glow. Renamon glowed the most as her soft, radiant fur seemed to almost glisten in the sun without being wet. He then looked at his own arms. They were just dull white.

He turned his attention over to the entrance to the tent, where the light seemed to permeate from.

"Goddamn it's sunny as hell today. I can't see shit like this..." He grumbled as he got up. His hands still covered the top of his eyes.

He walked out of the tent, but not before giving Renamon a kiss on the cheek. He looked left and right once he was outside. Soldiers went about their daily business; the medics were patching up the wounded and getting the severely injured ready to fly to a hospital, the engineers were doing some basic maintenance on the fast attack vehicles, the armorers were spray painting camouflage onto some guns, and the rest of the soldiers simply meandered around.

"Hey Browning, what's got you up so early? You should be resting and healing you know?" Bradley walked up to Jon and gave him a soft smile to which the convalescent man did the same.

"Eh, I think I'm fine for now. My body will heal up just fine at this point. What's more important though is that I get some breakfast. Would ya like to join me for some breakfast sir?"

The aged man smiled as he nodded his head. The two men walked down towards the mess hall as Bradley wrapped an arm around Jon, thankful that his star soldier made it back safely.

**Unite States Cavalry Scouts Forward Operating Base 8 AM…**

The two men sat alone on a table as they talked with each other. Bradley occasionally took sips from his sugar and creme-filled coffee while Browning drank a much darker and bitter brew that he preferred with water.

"I couldn't get this out of my mind Browning. That fox, you know the boys back at home from the government and even the media are going to give her hell the second they see her. The only reason she's even doing fine is because I'm not telling the higher ups anything, but it'll only be so long before they catch onto something and my ass gets filleted out there. You gotta come up with a plan, and fast, because first of all, she isn't human, and second of all, even if she was, she isn't a citizen of the US. She could be deported, and hell, that would be the best thing for her at this rate. The worst case scenario is that the mad eggheads back home dissect her or something for the sake of science and cutting shit up."

Jon grimaced as he finished up his bitter coffee. What Bradley said, although painful to take in, was the truth. Jon had to get his ass in high gear and think of something before Renamon pays the price.

"I don't know man... I'm thinking of everything I can, I'm thinking so hard that sometimes people think I'm giving them a thousand yard stare. The sad part is that despite all that thinking, I've only been able to come up with two options that make some sense."

Bradley, intrigued, raised his eyebrow. "And what exactly would those two options be Browning?"

"Live in some remote area and never have too much contact with the outside world again. Or do what I do best, fight to keep myself and her safe. I'll do anything I can whether I have to go to court, although I'll probably just lose, or go to the populace to try and convince them to keep Renamon safe from the government or some mad scientist. The best case scenario is that she registers as my pet and therefore becomes my property. That would allow me to keep her away from anyone and we could live somewhat normally."

Bradley lowered his head as the thought came to mind. "Her being registered as a pet… You know, that may actually work in a weird way since she's apparently sentient but still not a human being."

Browning smiled, not all hope was lost. He took a final sip from his coffee and bid Bradley farewell as he headed back to the medical tent.

**United States Cavalry Scouts Forward Operating Base, 1 PM…**

Browning walked into the illuminated tent and laid his eyes upon Renamon. She was still sleeping even though it was already 1 PM. Although he hated to have to wake her up, he didn't have any other choice, because they needed to get ready to leave for the states. Browning walked up to her bed and gave her a little shove as she woke up and mumbled in an irritated tone.

"Rise and shine little miss sunshine because we're going to be hitting the road again. Well, maybe not the road, but the sky."

Renamon's curiosity was peaked at that point.

"Why? Where are we going and why are you waking me up so early? I'm tiiiirreeeddd..."

"We're heading to America, my homeland, so you gotta be ready to travel. I'll pack up what I can for myself." Browning frowned as he finished the last sentence. By military law, he couldn't bring back his trusty MK1 Garand as his personal weapon since it was government property and he had to give the gun back to the armorer.

**United States Army Fort Benning, Georgia...**

Browning inhaled the fresh air around him deeply. Trees outlined the beautiful little roads on the fort while in the distance he could faintly hear the drilling that recruits were going through, and the "plinking" of soldiers that were on the range since they had free time.

"First things first before we go back into the civilian world, is that I get my concealed carry firearm from the armorer. Just wait here and I'll be right back."

Renamon stood still for about a half an hour at the entrance to the fort until Browning came back. He was holding an M1911 (not that she knew what the gun was) in his hands and inspecting carefully for any sort of scratch marks or dust that may have appeared on the gun since it had been in the armory for such a long time.

"Looks like this bad boy is in good shape. I got an apartment not too far from here that we can stay on. Just keep a low profile OK? We're lucky that Bradley allowed us to fly rather discreetly so that almost no one saw you and whoever did was already notified by him. But we're in the states now, and if anyone we don't know sees you then we could be in for a situation that we just aren't ready for. Look, I really don't want to use this, but if I have to, I'll do anything in my power to protect you."

Renamon stared at the little firearm. It was interesting how her life could possibly be determined by whether or not the small object was fired or not.

The two kept walking along the street towards Browning's house. Renamon was covered in a cloth reminiscent of the Afghanistan-styled full hijab, concealing her from the eyes of the rest of the world as the two rushed towards Jon's apartment.

"This is asinine to say the least. Why must I be humiliated and have to walk with this... fucking carpet all over my body? It's uncomfortable and disgusting and I hate it."

"Just be patient okay? We're almost there for Christ's sake. The apartment is single family, so we don't have any neighbors to deal with in the same house, it's also only a couple of miles away so it'll only take 15 minutes at most for us to get there. Okay?"

Jon looked to his left to check up on Renamon, only to find that she had taken off her covering and was fully revealing herself to the public.

"Renamon what the fuck?!" Jon loudly whispered. "Put it back on right now before someone sees you!"

"I'd rather the world see me as I am than be forced to wear this clothing. I do not wear clothing, I only wear my fur. That's it."

_Mother fucker... God, why does she have to be so proud at the worst time ever? What have I done to deserve such torture?_ Jon didn't have time for any games as he grabbed Renamon's hand, the two made a dash towards the apartment as Jon ran as fast as his legs could possibly take him. If anyone saw Renamon then it was all over. The problem was that she didn't get it. Ultimately, although he wanted to, he couldn't really blame her. In her previous world, she and her kind lived freely among humans and the two openly recognized each other's existence. But this wasn't her world, and if she kept this attitude up then his life was going to become a hell of a lot more difficult than it needed to be.

"We're almost there! Keep going Renamon!" Jon shouted as he sprinted so fast that he was on the verge of tripping. The apartment got closer and closer until finally they were at the doorstep and Jon quickly opened the door and pulled Renamon in with him before slamming the door shut.

"What is your issue Jon? Why did we have to run like that? Why did I have to be covered? What's going on?"

Jon fiddled with his fingers as he thought of an answer. "You have to remember that in this world, humanity has yet to encounter your race. If you're seen by someone then this can become international news. If we get put in the spotlight like that then a whole lot of things can happen. The government might want to take you, some mad scientist might be after you, or some crazy fur loving shithead might start stalking you. You can't just walk around so carelessly like that, because I might lose you, and if that happens, then I don't know what the hell I'd do with myself okay?" Jon was on the verge of crying. Between the delicacy of the situation and her stubborn insubordination, his whole plan to keep her safe and concealed was falling apart.

"I will tell you right now Jon. I used to live a wonderful life back in my world. I wasn't treated this way. Instead, I was even allowed to sit at the dinner table with my best friend and her family. Humans were friendly around me and my kind, and because of that, I became friendly with humanity as well. I don't care what it takes, but I'll do whatever I can to try and live that same lifestyle in this world if I can't go back to my world. I will not be some sort of prized trophy of yours that has to stay in a house all day long because the humans here are nothing but barbarians. I have a life, and I'm going to live it, regardless of where I am."

Browning's head hung low in defeat. As much as he'd love to have her agree with him, it didn't look like that'd be the case.

**Apartment 203, Browning's home, Georgia...**

Jon's face was red, and small watery streaks could be seen on his cheeks as he sat on his couch alone. Renamon had been upstairs for over 6 hours now; she was probably sleeping. He picked up the remote control and turned on the T.V. He figured that if nothing, he might as well watch the news to see how his commander down in China was doing.

**FNN Headquarters, Atlanta, Georgia...**

"Breaking news today. The U.S. military has been pushed back by a huge offensive from Eastern China, an offensive consisting of around a meager 40,000 Chinese troops bolstered by an incredible militia of over 1,250,000 civilian Chinese. It appears as though China is politically divided between the west and the east. The western part of China is looking towards seceding from the rest of China and becoming its own nation. The secessionists are also looking to make alliances with the United States military as well as with the EU and Russia, Eastern China's three biggest enemies in this war. This is evident in the fact that not a single western Chinese participated in this massive offensive and also due to the fact that the farther west this new army pushes, the slower they push, and the more men they lose. This is George Witman from FNN news, and we'll be right back after the commercials."

"CUT! Nice job out there George." The producer smiled as he finished recording the best newscaster he had ever seen.

Out of nowhere, a man came rushing down the hallway towards the crew with a couple papers in his hands. His face was sweating as he sprinted as fast as he could.

"Hey calm down there boy, what's got you in such a rush?" The producer was intrigued by the sense of emergency the boy had.

**Apartment 203, Browning's home, Georgia...**

Jon was sleeping peacefully on his couch, the remote in his hand and his mouth slightly open. Marks on his cheeks from his tears had yet to dry up. The T.V. was still on and FNN was still playing despite his unconsciousness.

"Breaking news tonight. It appears as though a special creature may have been spotted near Fort Benning in Georgia. A couple pictures, as you can see here, are flooding the internet with what appears to be a young man in an army uniform running with what can only be described as a slender, upright fox. All of our technical employees are working around the clock to ensure these pictures are legitimate and not photo-shopped and so far there have been no alarming signs telling us that these photos are fake. The fox-like creature in this particular picture appears to have its mouth open as if it may be talking or panting. Other pictures show that the fox has incredible intelligence since it understand the signals that the unidentified man in the picture are giving it. Could this be a new species on Earth? Is mankind truly the only sentient species in the galaxy? If not, then where did this foxy creature come from and what are its intentions? Find out more about this story as it progresses by going on to our website. We will also be having daily broadcasts about this phenomenon including what the fox's abilities are and who this man in the picture is. This is George Witman from FNN news, coming up next is Richard tehr's 'Tehr means business.'"

The remote slowly slipped away from Browning's hands until finally it fell on the ground at his feet. The T.V. turned off, and in his apartment there was nothing but absolute silence. In Georgia, there was an immediate spike in the number of travelers visiting Georgia. The first night recorded 1,500 more people than normal.

**Apartment 203, Browning's home, Georgia, second floor...**

Renamon Slept in her bed peacefully, her pointy, mouse-like nose would occasionally twitch as the vixen lightly snored in her sleep. Her hands were curled in a ball and her feet were pulled up as close as possible to her stomach. The warmth of her bed providing a nice cover from the rest of the world around her and especially from Jon.

**The next day...**

Browning peered out the window as a strange man paced back and forth on his lawn, as if he were waiting for something.

"What the fuck does this guy want?" He pulled out his custom-built M1911 and checked the magazine. A solid 7 rounds of Super .45 ACP man-stopper were loaded in the magazine. He shoved the magazine into the unloaded pistol and chambered the first round, making the pistol ready to fire at a moment's notice. He kept staring out the window for a couple more minutes to see if the man would go away. He waited for nearly thirty minutes, but the persistent man showed no signs of walking away and giving up.

"Motherfucker..."

He opened the door and immediately drew his M1911.

"What the hell are you doing my property and why have you been pacing on my lawn back and forth? You looking to get into trouble kid? Leave right now, it'd really suck if I had to use this thing against one of my fellow Americans."

The young man looked up at him and stared in his eyes with an incredible amount of excitement.

"It's you! You're the man in that picture! I saw you on the internet!"

"What picture? What the fuck are you talking about you little shit? Get out of my property right now!"

"Wait, but first, can I see Renamon?"

He drew the M1911 and pointed it directly at the kid's forehead. His expression was hard and the gun didn't shake in the slightest. "I said get the fuck out right now. That wasn't a request, and it won't be repeated again."

**Oh boy, the poor man's life clearly got a hell of a lot more complicated. Who the hell is this kid on his front door? Oh well, at the end of the day who has the pistol and who has nothing? :D**

**As always, I will be re-reading this chapter over and over again to correct any mistakes I may find. If people aren't going to like my story, it's going to be because the story isn't their type, not because they can't read it!**

**Word of the chapter!**

**Convalescent = In the process of healing (it's an adjective)**

**P.S. sorry this chapter isn't as long as it could have been...**

**Stick around for more stuff, and at some point of course, more lemony fluff XD There is more to come...**


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